What a tangled web we weave
by Mrs. Owl 09
Summary: Lucas finds himself back in Sunnydale, but things are very different. This is a crossover, but I'm waiting for it to be finished to label it as such. Rated T for my cursing, dirty mind, and violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This is placed close to the end of season one of SQ and after the end of season five for Buffy. I pushed Giles leaving a little earlier, but other than that, no major changes.**

** It is the sequel to both Let's do the time warp, again and Interface, taking place a few days after Interface ended. Although I would love for you to read both of them, it probably isn't vital. I tried to do a minor recap of both stories.**

**If you are wondering, the title is a result of the headache I gave myself trying to figure out three different time lines and two universes at the same time. I really hope it's worth it! ****Thank you for reading, review if you get a chance, and of course, I don't own Buffy or SeaQuest.**

* * *

After pacing the corridor outside of Captain Bridger's quarters for five minutes, Lucas Wolenczak took a deep breath, and forced himself to knock on the door. "Come in Lucas." A voice called from inside.

The young blonde man scowled as he opened the door. "How did you know it was me?" He shut it behind him and leaned on it, crossing his arms in mild defiance.

"No one else wears sneakers that squeak on the floor out there." Nathan enlightened him with a smirk, his light brown eyes dancing with mirth. He cleared his throat and became serious, "so, how is our time traveler doing today?"

"Damn… I guess Darwin ratted me out didn't he?"

Nathan nodded, "you'd be amazed what he'll tell me for a small diet change, and a promise of swimming with him later."

"Well, then he played us both then. He got three huge mackerel from me." Lucas rolled his eyes. "All he had to do was tell you I was with him for an hour."

"That was your mistake, if you had just said you were with him, I wouldn't have asked any questions." Nathan pointed out. "But, when Darwin came rushing to the bridge, and interrupted our weapons testing to inform me you had played with him for an hour, and insisted you never left, I got a little suspicious."

Lucas winced, "how much trouble am I in?" He sat on Nathan's bed, facing him. Mixing an expression of apology with a mild pout.

"Let's just call this one a learning experience." Nathan sighed. "I'm surprised it took you this long, to be honest."

"I had to escape medbay first." He grinned, "I think she knew what I was trying to do."

"Kristin always does," Nathan chuckled. "Have you had a chance to run his name on the 'nex yet?"

Lucas nodded, "yeah, he's from California, that much he told me though. I didn't find anything remarkable, no arrests, normal work history, and that he either has found the fountain of youth, or he was cryogenically frozen. He's supposed to be almost forty."

"What did you learn from him, personally?"

After chewing his lips, Lucas slowly responded. "He knows things. About me, about Darwin, even about the Stinger and Katie. A lot about the Stinger actually. He spend almost the whole hour telling me my own life's history. Things that aren't in any files…" He trailed off, looking disturbed. "How can he know my favorite movies and music if I have no idea who he is?"

Nathan shook his head. "I don't know Kiddo. But, do you believe the alternative? That he traveled through time and knows you from a year in the future?"

"It sounds crazy," Lucas admitted. "But… when I told him I've never met him before, he just seemed… so sad. Like his heart was broken or something." He shrugged, "I really don't know what to think."

"Kristin finished analyzing the herbs and powders in the bag he had with him." Nathan offered after a short silence.

"And?"

"Nothing dangerous, the crystals are pretty rare and are covered with strange inscriptions, though."

Lucas narrowed his blue eyes, "do you think he can do magic?"

Nathan adjusted himself in his desk chair, clasping his hands. "I think there are a lot of strange things we don't understand."

"Wow, that's pretty cliché." Lucas snorted.

"Doesn't make it less true." Nathan answered with a raised eyebrow.

Lucas fell silent for a few moments again. Finally he sighed, "are you going to tell the UEO about him?"

"I think we should get to the bottom of this first. He's only been here a few days, and we've had other things on our minds with the continuing repairs. Not to mention, he's pretty young. I'd hate to see him end up in jail if this just some kind of prank."

"You've been hiding a lot from them lately." Lucas smirked.

Nathan shrugged, and copied the smirk, "only the stuff that would jeopardize my crew being able to stay on board."

"Oh… yeah, thanks for that by the way."

"Not a problem Kiddo." Nathan paused. "Are you busy right now?"

Lucas shook his head. "Nope, still on medical leave for a few more days. Why?"

"Well," Nathan started, "this may be a strange idea, but why don't you go down to the brig and talk to him without a time limit, and with my permission for once. See if he sticks to his story, or if you can find any holes in it. And find out why he's here, he said he needed help, maybe we can do that much for him."

"Yeah," Lucas stood, and nodded.

"Crocker and Shan already grilled him a few times, and got the same story each time, maybe you can learn something different since he thinks he knows you and you're closer in age."

Lucas nodded again, "I'll see if Jayde wants to come too. She'll think of some good questions." His mouth curved into an unconscious grin at her name.

Nathan was very conscious of it, however. "What exactly is going on between you two?"

Lucas froze mid-step, reaching for the door, "I… uh… well… we…"

"Just think before you act, Kiddo."

"Yes, sir." Lucas escaped the room without incriminating himself further, shaking his head in embarrassment. "Geez, the nosy people on this ship…"


	2. Chapter 2

"So, what are we supposed to ask him?" Jayde whispered, as the security officer standing guard outside of the brig waved them past.

Lucas shrugged, "I guess we're just looking for more information. See if he lets anything slip." They came to a stop outside of the small cell holding the young man. Lucas cleared his throat, "um, hey, it's me again… uh, Lucas?"

Xander looked up from studying the floor. "I know who you are, dumbass." He said with a hard edge of bitterness evident in his voice. With a sigh, he pushed himself off the bunk. "I'm sorry, this is just really frustrating."

"I'm trying to help." Lucas answered in annoyance.

"No one can help us anymore. You were our last chance… with… with Buffy gone, we can't deal with this. Willow doesn't even know what to do, maybe if Giles had stuck around…" he trailed off with a depressed expression and ran a hand over his face. "I know you think I'm crazy, it probably will just make it worse if I tell you more."

"Try me."

Xander dropped back onto the bunk and took a deep breath, "ok, if you insist. It started with my good friend Buffy… well… she was my friend, now she's stuck in a hell dimension somewhere and we can't get her. She was put on this earth to save mankind from evils… etcetera etcetera. There was something she couldn't beat, a god actually. Glory… we were finally able to beat her… But Buffy sacrificed herself to save the world from the hell portal she opened up." He scrubbed at his face again, fighting tears. "Have I lost you yet?" The teens shook their heads. "Ok, so we've been trying to go on without her, since we live on top of hellmouth and everything. Giles, our leader guy, he took off, I guess it was too much for him."

"But something new started, we think someone is messing with the timeline. Willow can sense it, and there have strange reports about people just disappearing into thin air. Since Willow can't find anything with her magics, she thinks it's being done with technology. I thought… since you and I dealt with that kind of thing, you'd be able to help us if I brought you back to our time."

"And just how do you know me?" Lucas asked, leaning on the bars of the door.

Xander grinned, "well, it started when you were kidnapped by the lovely Captain Stark…"

"Stark? You know about her?" Lucas interrupted with surprise.

"Yeah, she's a load of fun, and probably has a great shot at being the poster child for crazy bitch monthly." He pulled aside the collar of his button up Hawaiian shirt, and unbuttoned the top three, he pointed to a thick scar next to his breast bone. "She shot me, I think I made her mad." There was a reckless gleam in his eye, "I do that to a lot of baddies."

Jayde raised an eyebrow at the scar, "so, she kidnapped Lucas?" She prompted, "then what?"

Xander hesitated, looking her over. "Are you Julianna?"

She snorted, "hardly."

"Oh, then… um Sandra?"

Jayde turned to Lucas, displeasure starting to grow in her light green eyes, "just how many girls have you dated?"

"Um… only a couple… I don't even know a Sandra." He narrowed his eyes at Xander. "Who is she?"

"Oh, uh, I guess someone from your future." He nodded to Jayde. "Who is this?"

She glared at him, "I am Jayde." She informed him scornfully, with her hands on her hips. "What do you know about me?"

Xander blinked at her a few times. "Nothing," he admitted, "he never told me anything about you." He looked to Lucas next. "That doesn't make sense, we…. talked for days. We told each other everything..." He sighed deeply. "This is completely screwed up, it can't just be from coming here too early."

"Or you're just lying to us for some reason." Lucas retorted.

The jailed young man started to turn red and his brown eyes filled with fury. He gritted his teeth, "I came here because I knew you and Captain Bridger would never refuse someone who needs help. That is your job, it's who you are. Or maybe I was just very wrong about all of you." He spat back.

"I _am_ trying to help you!" Lucas shouted, "but you aren't making any sense. For all I know, you want use me like Julianna just did."

"I don't have anything to do with the World Bank, trust me, not interested. And I'm not Nick, I wouldn't have any idea how to do any of that."

Lucas shook his head, trying to calm himself. "And just what do you know about that?"

"You hacked into that bank thing and then changed your mind. That guy… whatever his name was, got pissed and tossed you around. Nick saved your butt. That's all it was." Xander explained with a shrug.

Jayde spoke up, "no, that is _not_ all."

"What? What do you mean?"

"It's kinda a long story, but basically, Julianna helped some people in an attempt to take over the SeaQuest. When it didn't work, she damn nearly killed Jayde to get me to help her hack into the bank again." Lucas motioned to her with his thumb, and Jayde pulled up her sleeve, revealing the healing injury on her arm.

Xander winced, "geez, that's nasty." He grew quiet, thinking for a short while. "So… something must have changed, there's no way you would have left that out."

Jayde carefully pulled her sleeve down. "How could someone change the future like that? Would we know?"

He shook his head and grinned, "depends on what time travel movie you watch. But, it seems like if you see something affected by the changes, you remember it. It's all time paradoxy. Willow could explain it better, I'm sure."

"Ok, go back to what happened when you were here last. You said Stark kidnapped Lucas?" Jayde asked, watching him closely for any sign of lying.

"Oh, yeah. Well, she brought him to my time, well, my time a couple years ago, and put a chip in his head to control his body." He looked at Lucas, his face darkening at the memory. "She wanted you to hack for her, to make her all big and powerful in this time. You wouldn't and she… tortured us. Not my idea of a great night out."

Lucas' eyes widened at the thought of being tortured alongside of Xander. "What did she do?"

Xander shook his head and held out a hand, waving the question away. "It's better if you don't know." He shuddered slightly, "I still dream about it sometimes." He flashed the inside of his wrists, exposing the faint white lines crossing them. "Like I said, I pissed her off a few times, like when..."

"What about this chip?" Lucas interrupted. "Why would she torture us if she could control me?"

"I don't understand exactly how it did it, but it only worked on your body, and only when you were awake… I think. And didn't control your actual mind, so you had to be forced to do it."

Lucas unconsciously smoothed the hair covering the healing marks from the neural interface. "Why do people always want to mess with my brain?" He asked no one in particular. "Was I able to get it out?"

"Yeah, Kristin fixed you up."

"Well, that's good at least," Lucas sighed with relief. "What happened next?"

"We got out, with Buffy's help and sent you back here. Since I'm an idiot, I managed to get sent back with you… stupid comic…" He stood and started to pace the small cell.

"Stark got onto the ship, and disguised herself and her pet demon. We didn't know how to figure out who was who."

He took a breath, but was cut off by Jayde, "demon? What do you mean… demon?"

"You know, scary looking, weird colored skin, sharp teeth, eats kittens… This one was named Mark." He looked at the shocked expressions on the other side of the bars. "Right, so… after Willow got here too, she figured it out… only one of them actually. I was gullible enough to think my bad luck with women was over when… um… Katie started to hit on me…" Xander stopped walking as he blushed and hung his head.

"Katie? As in Lt. Commander Katie Hitchcock? That Katie?" Lucas asked, laughing hysterically.

"Yeah… So um… moving on then… Basically, Stark beat a few people up pretty badly, shot me, and was taken down."

"I don't really understand how you two, and whoever Willow is, got you here." Jayde added, over Lucas' continued giggles, "and back for that matter."

Xander nodded, "Willow is my friend, and she is this super crazy powerful witch. She found a spell to send Lucas home, and uh… I accidently went with." He sighed, and shook his head at the memory. "She came to get me back, but with everything going on with Stark, we stayed for a while." He smiled mischievously for a moment, "even after everything was taken care of, Kristin wouldn't let me leave until I was healed a little. We had a lot of fun."

"So, um… and don't take this the wrong way… but why did she send you, now? Can you do some of the stuff she can?" Lucas asked, looking confused.

"Oh… no, not all. She had to stay with Tara and take care of Dawn." He answered with a shrug. "She wrote everything down for me and measured it out very carefully. She said it shouldn't be too hard, and she filled the crystals with some of her power so it would work better."

Lucas grimaced, "uh… Kristin kinda tested everything to make sure it was safe. The measurements will probably be off, sorry…"

He groaned and sat on the bunk. "She's gonna kill me." Xander buried his head in his hands. "Oh god, so is Anya. I should have asked if her boss can travel though time… not that he would help a guy, but…"

"Maybe we can help from here…" Lucas interrupted the strange statements.

Xander was already shaking his head, "we don't know who's doing it, and if things have already changed, I'm probably already putting you guys in danger. Damn it…" he bit his lip angrily. "I'm completely screwed here."

"She came to get you last time, maybe she will again." Jayde pointed out supportively. Although the situation was bizarre, she couldn't help feeling sorry for the young man in front her.

"Yeah… or with everything that happened back home, she'll think I decided to stay here ag…" Xander bit the end of his sentence off, and looked away.

"You wanted to stay?" Lucas asked in surprise.

Xander hesitated before launching into his next statement, "Yeah, I… wanted to, after everything was done… but …you didn't want me too."

"Oh… I'm sorry… I think." Lucas felt a pang of guilt when he saw Xander's hurt face. "Why didn't I?"

A slow smile crossed his face before Xander answered. "Because, I'm Harvey Dent…"


	3. Chapter 3

Early the next morning, Lucas found himself pacing outside of the captain's quarters, muttering to himself, again. "You are going to wear a hole in the floor, kid." Ben Krieg announced, coming up behind him.

Lucas slowed, "I'm just trying to decide what to do."

"About the Terminator?"

"Huh?"

Ben rolled his eyes, "ok, he didn't actually say 'come with me if you want to live', but you have to admit…" He closed his mouth with a snap when he saw Lucas' bemused expression. "And you have no idea what I'm talking about." Lucas only shook his head with a raised eyebrow. "What do you think you should do?"

"Well… I don't think he's lying, at least, I think he believes all of it. And if he really needs our help, how can I turn that down?"

Ben clapped him on the shoulder, "you're a good kid, you know that, right?" Lucas dipped his head and blushed. "What does Bridger think?"

"I don't know, he wanted me to talk to him and try to figure this out." Lucas admitted. "Right now, I'm somewhere between this weird guy really needs me to come with him and help him out with a bad situation, or he's a complete psychopath who wants to lock me in a small room and experiment on me."

"That's a pretty big jump."

Lucas shrugged, "he has nothing to back himself up, but he just seems so… earnest, I guess."

"What does your heart tell you?" Ben asked, earning himself a scowl. "No, I mean it. You're a good judge of character."

The teen smirked, "well, I'm taking advice from you and you're the biggest character on this ship… so I may not be that good of a judge after all." Ben ignored the minor dig from his friend and waited patiently. He knew Lucas was trying to shy away from the compliment, as he often did. "I think he's in trouble."

Ben nodded once, and walked away. Lucas watched him go and turned to knock on the captain's door, but it was already open. "You heard everything?"

"I heard enough. Why don't you come inside?" Nathan stood aside and shut the door when Lucas entered. The young man sat on his normal perch on the bunk and Nathan joined him. "You want to help him." The statement carried no surprise or admonishment.

"Yeah… do you think that makes me a sucker? I mean, with everything that happen with Julianna and everything. Now I'm rushing off to something even more bizarre to help someone who I don't know." Lucas brought his knees up and hugged them, he wrinkled his nose. "Maybe I'm just stupid."

Nathan chuckled, "you've never been stupid, foolhardy maybe, not stupid."

"You think it's a bad idea."

"Let's just say, it's not something I'm completely comfortable with." Nathan told him with a sigh. "And we kind of need you here to help with the repairs. Just because the UEO is happy with how the ship is holding up, it doesn't mean I am."

"Well," Lucas started slowly, testing the waters, "I am still a civilian, technically you can't order me not to."

Nathan tilted his head and regarded him for a moment. "Want to try that again Kiddo?"

His eyes flashed dangerously, and Lucas scrambled for a response. "I… uh…. that didn't come out right… I mean…"

"Yes, you are a civilian, but you are still a minor. You're basically my ward, I still have final say here, to keep you safe." Nathan said firmly.

Lucas bowed his head in shame, the mild rebuke from his captain carried more weight than if he had been screamed at by anyone else. "I know, I'm sorry. It's just… I'm know you're going to say no, and I think this is something we need to do."

"You're sure of that?" Lucas nodded, still looking down. "Then I think it's time to get this young man out of the brig and have a long talk with him."

Lucas' head snapped up, "we're going to help him? You'll let me go with him?"

Nathan's hand came up, slowing the excited teen. "I'll talk to him, if I like what he says, we'll figure something out. As far as you going with him, you won't be going alone. I'll send a team with you."

"Who?"

"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it, Kiddo."

Lucas smiled, "thanks, Captain." His smile turned mischievous and he seemed to have a difficult time controlling a laugh.

"What?" Nathan narrowed his eyes, but still had a hint of amusement in them.

Lucas couldn't hold it in any longer and laughed outright. "You called me your ward, it's like I'm Robin or something…"

It was Nathan's turn to laugh and he nodded, "well, I have seen some of the acrobatics you preform when you're in a hurry." He mussed his blonde hair. "But don't you think I'm a little old to be Batman?"

* * *

Xander was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling when he heard the keypad's tone. "Lunch time?" He swung his legs around and started to stand. He stopped when he saw Lucas' grin through the bars.

"If you want, but we can eat in the mess hall."

"You're letting me out?" Xander eyed Shan as he pulled the door open.

The security officer nodded, "yes, but you'll still be under guard."

"I'm very ok with that. Can I play with Darwin?" Xander slowly poked his head out of the cell, expecting to be pushed back in.

Lucas shrugged, "I don't see why not."

Xander flashed a toothy grin. "Awesome, does that mean you believe me?"

"I'm not sure yet, Captain Bridger wants to talk to you and there's no reason to leave you locked in here. We're almost a mile underwater and I'm pretty sure you don't have gills." Lucas told him, leading him out of the brig. Shan stayed close behind watching them.

"At least you don't seem to think I'm an axe murderer, that's a good first step." Xander quipped, earning a chuckle from Lucas. He turned to the teen and smiled, hope sparking in his eyes. "So, where is your… uh… friend? Jade?"

"She's up in the science bay working on some stuff."

Xander winced, "I hope I didn't get you in trouble asking about your other girls."

Lucas shook his head and grinned. "Nah, we're good… very good."

"Oh?" Xander prompted with a raised eyebrow.

Lucas glanced over his shoulder to Shan, who was looking at the walls, pretending he didn't hear anything. "Yeah, she's really great. But…. I'm worried. You said you didn't know her, if we fix the time line, maybe we won't meet."

"Or, maybe what happened to us will change." Xander shrugged, "we have no way of knowing."

Lucas nodded uncertainly, he pulled out his PAL and typed in an access code. "Bridger," came over the small speaker.

"It's Lucas, is it ok if I take Xander to get something to eat before I bring him to you?"

"We're actually having some problems on the bridge, you have plenty of time."

"Oh? Do you need me?"

"No, it's the WSKR's, Ortiz is handling it."

"Ok, we'll probably head to the moon pool after eating then."

"Sounds good Kiddo, I'll call you when we're done."

Lucas pocketed the device, "So, do we eat, or play first?"

Xander grinned, "I think we should build up an appetite with Darwin first."

* * *

Darwin squealed happily when he saw he had visitors. Lucas leaned over the tank with the vocorder in hand. "I should be mad at you fish face."

"Darwin tell Bridger Lucas with him."

"And then what did you tell him?"

There were several seconds of silence, "swim!"

Lucas started to laugh, "you're lucky you're cute." He turned to show Xander the wetsuits, but to his surprise he was already holding them, and handing one to him.

"This one is the one you like, right?"

Lucas blinked and nodded, "yeah, um… thanks." He took the wetsuit but had to set it down when his PAL chirped at him. "Lucas here."

Kristin's voice responded, "where are you right now?"

"We're about to swim with Darwin. Why? Is something wrong?"

"No, Jayde was looking for you. She tried calling you but you didn't respond."

"Huh… I was talking to the captain a little while ago, maybe it was at the same time. But he did say they were having problems with the WSKR's, if it spread, the communications could be compromised."

"I'll let Nathan know. I'm sending Jayde and Tim to you right now."

"Tim?"

"Yes, I was hoping you and him could run a 'nex search on some of the inscriptions from the crystals our new friend had."

"He's actually here with me right now, if they bring everything, we can figure it out together."

There was a short pause, "are you sure that's safe, Lucas?"

"Shan is here, and he can't really throw Darwin at me or anything."

He could hear her exasperated sigh over the PAL. "Alright, I'll send everything along."

Lucas smiled at her tone, "thanks, Doc." He tilted his head to listen to the reply, but there wasn't one. He shrugged and put the PAL on a desk. "Well, I guess we aren't swimming right now." Lucas shot an apologetic look to Xander.

"That's ok, Tim can help me figure out the spell." Xander took the wetsuits back and put them away.

"Wait… Tim? Tim O'Neill? You think he'll have anything to do with magic?" Lucas rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure he prays if he sees a black cat."

Xander started to laugh, "yeah, he was freaked about Willow for a while. But she talked to him and they became good friends. Once he understood it, he wasn't afraid anymore."

"Do you think he'll help us get to your time?"

"Maybe, she's little more persuasive than I am. It comes from be way too cute. Everyone just does what she wants," Xander laughed.

They were still chuckling when the door opened, Jayde walked in before Tim, who was carrying the large duffle bag. The bespectacled man looked apprehensive when he saw Xander was out of the brig. "Kristin asked us to bring this to you." He set the bag down with a distasteful expression.

Xander crossed the room and picked it up, he looked inside and sighed. "She put everything into plastic containers, I'm not even sure what is what now. Willow marked all the bags." He started pulling out the various ingredients and crystals. "Any chance you'll help me figure this out? It's my only way home."

Tim's eyes went wide at the suggestion. "You want me to play with that stuff?" He made the sign of the cross, while shaking his head. "I'm not getting near it."

Jayde snorted loudly, "I'll help, I know about some of it."

It was Lucas' turn to look shocked. "You do?"

"I have a good friend who is a Wicca, I've helped him a few times." She shrugged and inspected one of the containers. "This is just sage, probably to purify the area first." Jayde pulled the small green bundle out and set it aside. "Let's see, white sand to represent time…" she opened another full of small brown balls. "Whew… allspice. Your friend really wants to amp your powers." Jayde laughed at the last small container, "aloe… for luck. A clock, the crystals, and her notes for the spell." She held up the piece of paper. "Of course, it's all in Latin. I think that's where you come in Tim."

The three males in the room watched her with open mouths. "You only helped him a few times?" Lucas asked incredulously.

"Well… yeah, I read all about the herbs and stuff though. I thought was interesting. I can't read the Latin at least." She replied defensively.

"I might be able to," Xander offered, "but Giles always says my pronunciation is heinous."

Tim shook his head, "it doesn't matter, you guys aren't going anywhere."

"Not yet, Captain Bridger wants to talk to Xander and then decide." Lucas argued, "we migh…"

He was cut off by the door opening, Ben stepped through, "hey kid, the captain is waiting for you on the bridge."

"Why didn't he call me?" Lucas reached for the PAL next to him.

Ben shrugged, "they aren't working, that's why he needs you."

"Alright, I'm coming." Lucas turned to Xander and Jayde, "duty calls, hopefully this won't take very long." Ben turned to walk from the room, but was shoved aside when the door slammed against him.

"Don't move!" Shan shouted to Ben, coming from behind the door and dropping to one knee with his sidearm in his hands, aimed at the morale officer. "How did you get onto this ship?"


	4. Chapter 4

Ben held up his hands in front of him meekly and slowly approached Shan. He spoke in a low calming voice. "What are you doing? You know me, you've known me for almost an entire year."

"Don't come any closer buddy," Shan flicked his eyes to Lucas, "you guys need get out of here, find Crocker. I'll keep this intruder here."

"Shan…" Lucas' eyes were wide and frightened. "Please, put down the gun, Ben is our friend."

Ben took a step closer and reached for the gun. Lucas also came forward, hoping to distract the security officer.

"Hey, um… why don't we talk about this for a minute?" Jayde also approached them, sliding beside Shan. She desperately tried to find an opening to attack before anyone was hurt. "You should really let me take the gun." He glanced at her and blinked a few times, looking confused. "Shan? What's going on? Talk to me."

"N… no… back up. I can't let you…" he paused and seemed to attempt taking a breath, with unfocused eyes. He took a step forward and stumbled to his knees. The gun tumbled from his slack hand and he made a wild grab for it. His thumb caught in the trigger guard, causing the weapon to fire on it's way down. "Wha… I feel… so…" He gasped one last time and blinked out of existence.

Ben screamed in pain and clutched at his lower stomach, blood oozing from beneath his fingers. Lucas blinked several times at the empty place beside the door, before running to him and helping him to sit on the floor. "Ben…"

He offered a pained smile, "I'll be ok, kid. Go with Xander, fix this… fix him." He pointed to the gun Shan had dropped before disappearing. "It'll all be ok then."

"I don't want to leave you like this." Lucas sucked in a breath and blinked away tears.

"It's just a flesh wound, I'll be fine." Ben smiled again, but flinched when he coughed. "Go…" he whispered in a hoarser voice.

Lucas swallowed and nodded, "ok, let me get you some help first."

"The time line is changing again." Xander argued. "We need to get out of here."

"But… I can't just…"

"Now damn it! We need to do it now!" Xander yelled, jolting Lucas out of his shock. The blonde teen nodded unsteadily and walked to the edge of the moon pool.

Jayde grabbed the spell ingredients from the desk she left them on, and began reading the notes left by Willow. "Ok, we need to mix these very carefully, they need to go in a certain order it looks like. Tim, I'm sorry, but you'll need to read the spell when we're done."

Tim was still staring at the spot Shan had disappeared from. "How this is happening? This… this isn't possible." No one listened, or replied to him.

Lucas leaned over the side of the dolphin's tank, and spoke to Darwin. "You need to find Captain Bridger, tell him… tell him Ben needs the doctor and we went back to help Xander to fix everything. Do you understand?" Darwin nodded his beak. "And, let him know... I'm sorry to do it like this."

"Xander good… Lucas be safe, follow Xander." Darwin ordered before flicking his tail and taking off through to the tubes to the bridge.

Lucas looked back to the room, saving a glace for Ben. He was leaning against the wall, looking pale but awake. He flashed a grin and nodded. The teen bit his tongue in frustration and smiled back at the bleeding man.

Jayde was surrounded by spell ingredients. She poured all of each into one of the larger containers, and jammed the crystals inside. Next, she took the clock and smashed it's face with a well-aimed strike with the heel of her palm. The pieces were tossed into with the other spell components. Shoving the page into Tim's hand, she barked at him, "read, now!"

Tim swallowed and peered at the paper in his trembling hands. "Victoriae temporis Congregamini, Da mihi alam Ad eam mihi. Ruunt in me mihi itinera, Et erit dies tertius."

The mixture at Jayde's feet flared suddenly and a small white opening appeared, the sound of wind roared through the room. Xander started to push everyone to it. "Come on, I don't know how long it will last." They grabbed each other's arms tightly and stepped through.

They were all blinded by a bright white light, Lucas couldn't see anything, and only felt a strong grip on either arm. He tried to yell to his friends, but his words were whipped from his mouth by the winds. After an indeterminate amount of time, the light vanished, and the group found themselves on a dark and trash filled street.

"Where are we?" Tim whispered, looking around and waiting for his eyes to adjust.

"Welcome to the hellmouth." Xander said with his arms wide, after letting go of Tim's arm. "Well, welcome back for you, Lucas, I guess."

"Yeah, great." Lucas answered dryly.

Xander offered a half smile, "I should be better than your last visit… or… I mean… next visit… Gee I really hope we don't get tortured this time."

Lucas chuckled at the fumbled statement. "As long as everyone stays the hell out of my head, we should be good."

"I'll chase them all away from you." Xander promised him with an understanding grin.

Jayde let go of Lucas and Tim and started walk forward, she collapsed to the ground, shaking her head to clear it. The men were at her side instantly, crouching beside her. "Whoa… crap… I'm ok, just got lightheaded." She glared at them. "Really, I'm good." Jayde stood with a huff, shaking off all but Lucas.

"It's just been a long week, I hope the UEO offers good vacation benefits for dealing with hostile take overs." She smiled at Lucas teasingly, he rolled his eyes at her joke, but kept a protective arm around her shoulders.

Xander stared at a burnt out building next them. "It's the Bronze… but, great googly moogly, what the heck happened?" His gaze lingered on several stripped cars parked on the street. "It was not like this when I left…" He looked worried, "we need to get to the Magic Box and find everyone. Something is wrong."

"Could the person who is changing time have done all this?" Tim asked, cringing when a stray dog burst from a pile of garbage and ran past them.

"Possibly," Xander admitted, "but most of the changes have been just people disappearing and that kind of thing, minor stuff. This seems a little extreme."

Lucas snorted, "people disappearing is minor to you?"

"Uh… well… I mean…" he fell silent, furrowing his brow. "I'm sure Ben will be ok." He finally offered awkwardly. Lucas looked away, not willing to answer. "Come on," Xander mumbled, and began walking down the cluttered road. "The demons don't know Buffy is gone, but they're always around, we should hurry."

"How could it get this bad?" Tim muttered as they walked. "Don't you have any kind of police in this town?"

Xander scoffed, "the Sunnydale Police Department has a strictly hands off policy about monsters."

"They don't do anything?"

"Nah, they stopped trying when the mayor turned into a giant snake thing and started eating them." Xander explained serenely, and with a shrug.

Tim arched an eyebrow, "oh… I guess that's… understandable."

At every small noise, they jumped and glanced around, but found themselves safely in front of a row of small shops after about ten minutes. "There," Xander pointed out the square building. The words 'Magic Box' were lettered on a sign above the door. There was a lone light burning inside, but the rest of the street was pitch dark. The street lights all around them had been destroyed.

Xander confidently strode to the door and waited for them with his hand on the knob. The diminished SeaQuest crew gathered around him closely. "So, uh, just remember, they don't know that you don't know them, but they know you… it may get a little confusing at first." They nodded as one.

He pulled to door open and stepped inside, followed by the others. They all gasped when they viewed the interior. In the center of a room full of books and jars, there was a petite redheaded woman sitting on the floor facing away from them. Holding a long screwdriver in one hand, she was surrounded by a mangled body parts. At the sound of their entry, she spun quickly and stood up. She held the screwdriver defensively, while a ball of blue fire appeared in her other hand. She screamed a mixture of shock and rage and ran toward them, wielding her weapon.


	5. Chapter 5

The fire vanished as fast as it came, but the screwdriver was still in her hand when she threw herself at Xander. She enveloped him in a tight hug, then stepped back. Dropping the tool in her hand, she slapped his chest hard. "Damn it, Xander! Where have you been? We thought you were dead!" She stepped back again, but thought better of it and lunged at him, holding him in her arms all over again. "I should kill you before Anya gets ahold of you! At least I'll be fast about it!" She smacked him once again.

Xander flinched away, but laughed at her angry expression. "Chill Willow, why would I be dead? It only took a few days."

Her green eyes flashed, "no, you've gone a month. How did you screw it up? I had everything good to go for you."

"It wasn't my fault… Wait… a month?!"

Willow ignored his protests and turned to Lucas. "It's so good see you again." She wrapped her arms around him, and rested her cheek on his shoulder. "I'm glad I didn't have wait twenty years."

"I… uh… hi?" Lucas tried to detangle himself awkwardly.

"Will…" Xander tried to interrupt her.

She spotted Tim hiding in the back of the small group and let out a shout. "Tim! I didn't expect you to come too!"

He saw her coming and tried to back away, hitting the door. Soon, he was being held tightly and his entire body went tense as he tried to lean away from the overexcited person clinging to him. "Hey… um… ok…" Tim's panicked eyes found Xander's, he mouthed _help me _as he carefully patted her arm. "Who… um… I mean… how are you?"

"Will…" Xander tried again to get her attention.

She let go of Tim and turned to Jayde, holding out her hand, "hi, I'm Willow, you must be new to the crew." Her greeting seemed almost shy compared to her welcome of Lucas and Tim.

"Uh… yeah, very new actually." Jayde shook her hand and smiled warmly at her antics. To her, this seemed like the type of person who would never do anything malicious.

"Will…" Xander said louder with a little force.

She whirled to him and glared, "don't you 'Will' me, I'm still mad at you."

"Will…"

Her green eyes narrowed, "what?" She pronounced the T so hard Xander winced.

"You uh… I mean… _somehow _I got sent there too early. A year before we were there last… they don't know us, all the stuff with Stark… it didn't happen yet."

Willow clapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh no!" She dropped her hands and brought one finger to Xander's face. "You sneezed…" she accused.

"You threw dust in my face." He defended himself lamely.

"It was sand," Jayde corrected.

Xander pouted, "dusty sand…"

Willow groaned loudly, "we're trying to fix the time line and you go and mess it up even more." She moved her hand in a sharp slicing motion. "No more time travel for you, how did you end up here so late by the way?"

Lucas spoke up, "he's right about that part not being his fault. Our doctor… oh… I guess you know her. Kristin? She tested your ingredients to make sure they were safe to keep around."

"Ok, so I can't blame you for that one, I guess. But still, one sneeze... you could have ended up outside of the ship underwater."

"Can I just repeat… dusty sand?" Xander attempted. He walked past her and looked down at the body parts on the floor. "Did the Buffy-bot piss you off?"

"Buffy-bot?" Lucas asked, eyeing the grisly scene.

"Yeah, after Buffy…" her voice broke on the name, "we needed a way to keep the monsters from knowing she was gone." Willow knelt down among the pieces. "She was hit by a car yesterday, I think she was trying to fight it or something. I'm attempting to rebuild her, but I need all new servos for her arms and legs, if not more." She sighed heavily, "I just don't know if I can repair her again."

"Do you want me to try?" Lucas was naturally drawn to the lifelike robot and the idea of working on it. "Tim might be able to help too."

The quiet communications officer jerked at the sound of his name. He had been inspecting a jar labeled 'bat toenails' with a look of absolute horror on his face. "Uh, yeah… no problem."

She nodded, "That'd be great." She smiled sadly at them. "It's great having you here, even if you don't know us."

Lucas offered an apologetic smile back to her, as he knelt by the torso. "I can't help but feel like I'm missing something great with you guys."

"The hardest part was getting him to believe me, I guess making him step through a time portal helped with that." Xander laughed, and Lucas quickly joined in. "Now we get to have fun and hang again."

Willow shook her head, "you don't realize how bad it's gotten out there. We don't have time for fun. It's like …. every time we get close to figuring it out, something changes to take us back to square one."

"And you're sure it's not magic?" Jayde asked, looking up from an old book she was looking through.

"Yeah, Tara and I have done a bunch of spells to locate the source. We would have found something." Willow sized her up, "do you know anything about Wicca?"

"I have a friend who practices. I don't have his kind of power, but I know a lot about doing the grunt work."

"She's the one who set up the spell, if it wasn't for her, we probably would have ended up in the Stone Age." Xander informed her, retrieving the screwdriver for Lucas, who took it without comment.

He was already lost in the robot's internal workings. Tim looked on, understanding most of what was being done, but waiting for invite to dive in as well. When Lucas connected one wire, the disembodied blonde head next to him on the floor opened her eyes and spoke. "Darn your sinister attraction."

Tim yelped and jumped backwards, falling on his butt, "Yarō!" He scrambled away, flinching when he came into contact with a leg. "Menschen kinder." He stood and shook his body in disgust.

"I thought you were going to stop that." Xander sighed, "it's creepy."

Willow rolled her eyes, "I tried, that one is just deeply programed. I think he liked it more than the others."

Lucas picked up the head, and examined it closely as it blinked and smiled back at him. "This is really good, I don't think I've seen one this good in 2018. Did you make it, Willow?"

"No, um… it was a special order. We just… uh… confiscated it."

"What was it made for?" The silence and awkward expressions from Willow and Xander answered his question. "Oh… Oh! Ew…" He quickly put the head down and wiped his hands on his jeans.

Picking up an arm again, Lucas pulled out a small motor. "This shouldn't be too difficult to fix, I just need the new parts."

"Yeah, that's part of the problem. We can't get the metal gears we need. The plastic ones just snap apart when she fights something." Willow explained, taking the motor. "I ordered quite a few, but it'll be several days until they get here. I was hoping to have her functioning at least, so demons don't think they have free rein."

Lucas thought for a moment before replying. "Wait, you really just need people to think she's around right?"

"Yeah."

"So I can pull the working servos from her knees and feet and put them into the hip and shoulder joints. They're smaller but, as long as she doesn't run or actually have to fight, it will just look like she has a limp."

Willow nodded enthusiastically. "I didn't think of that, it should work. Thank you, Lucas."

Lucas started to pull aside the thick fake skin on the leg next to him, he paused when he heard a soft moan from Jayde. She had closed her eyes and slumped against the wall. "Hey… um, any chance we can get out of here? I… I don't think time travel agrees with me." She brought a shaky hand up to her face. "I think I just need to lay down or something."

The blonde teen was on his feet instantly and went to her. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine, just lightheaded again." She offered a half smile, "I didn't exactly eat today. There was a lot going on."

"Since you came back a month later than I intended, it probably made it worse." Willow pointed out, coming to stand beside the girl. "I was very specific with my measurements. You could have actually aged a little in transit."

Xander inspected his hands, "I don't feel older, and wouldn't we all be starving?"

She shook her head and sighed. "It would have only been a few weeks at most. And when you travel though the portal your body is like in a kind of stasis. The problem is, I can't know how you were affected unless I know the amount of spell components that were missing." Willow held up her hands helplessly. "There are just too many variables."

"Is there room for them to stay at Buffy's house? I should go back to the apartment and talk to Anya." Xander wrinkled his face for a moment. "Or… I'll stay with you, for my own safety."

"Anya's been staying at the house with us since you didn't come back. I'll call Spike, he's probably out patrolling right now. He'll come with us."

Xander scowled, "why does Mr. Neutered Bleach Blonde Vampire of the year have to come with us? Is he lonely?" He asked scornfully.

"Vampire?" Came Tim's stunned voice.

"Xander, please, you don't understand how bad it is out there. And I can't protect all of you at once." Willow said, obviously growing angry again. "Besides, he's helped a lot since Buffy died." She added quietly.

"Vampire… Did you just say…" Tim continued in the background.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it," Xander growled.

Willow turned away from him and walked to a large chest sitting on the floor. "Everyone get a weapon, there are enough for everyone, and I want you all armed. I'll call him." She popped the top and crossed to the phone, quickly dialing a number.

Lucas waited until Jayde pushed herself off the wall and they walked to the old style chest together. He pulled out a long thick wooden pole with metal tines at one end. "What is this thing? It's really nasty looking."

Jayde paused to see if he was joking, his confused look informed her he was not. "Uh… a pitchfork."

"Oh! I've only seen them in movies…"

She started to laugh and looked at him incredulously. "How have you never seen a pitchfork?"

A defensive expression crossed his face, "I live on a submarine, when would I have used one?"

"You should have at least seen one before."

"So…" Tim was watching them all with terrified eyes, "are we just not going to talk about the vampire comment?"


	6. Chapter 6

Willow took pity on the spluttering man. "Yes, Tim. There are vampires, and demons… um like monsters. That's what we do here, we get rid of them."

"B… but how?"

She pointed at the large chest and the brutal looking weapons being pulled from them. "Whatever it takes."

Tim raised his hand, trying to physically block out the information he was gaining. "This may seem selfish, but why do you do all this? Why don't you just leave the area?"

"The same reason SeaQuest doesn't run when someone needs help." Willow said, tossing the robot's limbs into a pile. She looked up, "it's what we do."

He took a deep breath and seemed doubtful, "I think that's a little different, we don't have monsters."

"What about the ghost ship?" Lucas pointed out. "Doesn't that count as monsters?"

"Oh… well…"

Lucas pulled out a long thin rapier and handed to him, "here, take this, I think this is more your style."

"So this isn't freaking you out?" He took the sword numbly, "you're just going to accept all this?" A smirk was his answer. "Of course you're ok with this." Tim sighed and shook his head in disbelief.

"You need to think about it like this, Tim, we just stepped through some kind of time portal, and you've witnessed magic right in front of you." Lucas shrugged, "this isn't too big of a leap for me." He grinned, "and it means all those late night movie marathons with Ben were actually research."

"But this…" Tim gestured to the rapier.

"And…" Lucas continued, still smiling, "just last week, my mind was stuck inside of the SeaQuest's computers. After all the proof in front of you, you can't believe there are crazy things out there that we don't understand?"

Willow looked at him in shock, "what do you mean about the ships computers?"

"Oh… uh. There was this thing, and my consciousness kind of was transported into the systems of the ship. Some people tried to take over, and they wanted to take me out of the equation so I wouldn't cause problems." He grinned recklessly as Jayde snorted. "In the end, it just made it a lot easier to rid of them." Lucas shot a glance to Xander, "I guess I like to piss off the baddies too."

"So you could control the whole ship?" She asked with wide eyes, he nodded and she moaned softly. "That's so awesome, I wish I could have seen that."

Jayde felt a pang of jealousy towards Willow, but forced it down. Considering her astonished gaze was fixed over Lucas' shoulder, she was moderately sure the lust in the redhead's eyes was purely for the technology involved. When Willow spoke again, Jayde's belief was reaffirmed, "How did it happen?"

Lucas seemed oblivious to any of it and shrugged. "I think that's kind of classified. And I really don't want it to happen again."

"Oh," her face crumpled slightly. "You know I wouldn't do something like that."

Lucas winced, "That's what I thought about Julianna…" He sighed, "and Jayde was hurt because of it. I'll never forget that."

Hiding her red face, Jayde played with the sleeve covering the bandage on her arm. "It's ok, Lucas… you didn't know."

"And because I didn't know, she almost killed you." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "I won't let that happen again."

"You learned a lot about the ship." Jayde hedged, trying to change the direction of the conversation.

"Yeah, that was cool, annoying though. And now I know every little programming issue we have. It'll take me months to get all the kinks worked out… whenever we get all of this straightened out." A dark expression crossed his face. "Unless the ship is gone because of this."

"We'll figure it out," Willow told him with sympathy in her voice, "we always do."

Any further conversation was halted when the door opened to show a tall man with angular features and very blonde hair. His leather trench coat swirled in a menacing manner around his ankles as he walked in and slammed the door behind him. "Well… well" he started in a mocking tone, with a British accent. "I see you're back, monkey boy, didn't run away then? Or did they just return you as a stray?"

Xander set down the large ax he was holding when the door opened, and picked up the robot's head in one motion. He tossed it to the new visitor, who caught it in one hand, mostly out of surprise. "You shouldn't play so rough if your toys, Spike. No one around here can build you a new one."

Spike snarled and dropped the head, charging at Xander. The dark haired man stood his ground, smirking, while cocking his head. Spike stopped short of him, enraged and griping his hands into tight fists. "Aw, did the love sick puppy get his feelings hurt?" He asked in a singsong voice.

"Worth it." Spike announced and took a swing. When his fist connected with the side of Xander's skull, they both hit the floor holding their heads.

"Xander!" Willow yelled, running to them. "Act like an adult!" She turned to Spike, "and you act…. act like a human being."

"He's a human," Spike said sulkily, still holding his head.

"Well he's also an idiot most of the time." She retorted, giving both of them a death stare.

Xander pouted at her, "hey…"

Her outstretched hand cut him off. "Still mad at you."

"It was a sneeze…"

"Nope."

Spike pushed himself off the ground and eyed the three people staring at him. He sneered at Tim's uniform. "What, Anya hire a janitor?"

Tim's body stiffened and he proudly lifted his chin. "This is the uniform of the UEO's flag ship, the SeaQuest."

"Oh, these are the gits you're always going on about." He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I can see they're great fighters, these ones. No wonder you called for some real muscle." He pulled out a cigarette and tapped it on the back of his hand. "I bet they're never even seen a real demon."

"And so what if we haven't? We've dealt with plenty of dangerous situations onboard." Lucas said defensively.

Spike fixed his eyes on him and rotated his head, cracking his neck threateningly. "Oh come on, you look like some punk getting ready for a bar fight." Jayde taunted, "you obviously can't fight, you touched Xander and dropped like a stone. What wrong with you?"

"He's got a chip in his head." Xander laughed disdainfully, he blinked away the blood starting to drip from his eyebrow. After a hungry look from Spike, he backed up a few feet, "he can't hurt anyone without a big ole jolt to the brain."

"A chip? Like a computer chip?" Lucas asked with raised eyebrows.

Spike smiled coldly, slipping the cigarette between his teeth. "Yeah, designed by the same people who made your's."

"Oh… I guess they get around." Lucas scowled, "does that mean some one can control you?"

Spike snorted and flicked a lighter. "This lot likes to think so."

Lucas wrinkled his nose as the smell of smoke drifted to him. "So what's your deal? Are you a bad ass fighter, or just an ass?"

Tim caught the flicker of anger from the smoking man and stepped in front of Lucas, before he could say anything else. Spike narrowed his eyes at the protective stance. "You think I'll hurt your little friends?"

"I… I won't let you." He stuttered, gripping the sword tightly.

Spike smirked, "I don't think that thing will take off a head, it'll just piss me off some." He drew an X shape over his heart. "You'd have to get me here, and then with something wood. That little pin won't help you."

"Spike…" Willow started with a warning tone. "They are here to help us."

He turned his cocky smile on her, "well, they should know what they are dealing with in good old Sunnydale."

Willow opened her mouth again to argue, but paused for a few moments, she nodded finally. "Fine, but don't do anything extra stupid, we need you whole… Dawn needs you whole."

He seemed to hesitate when he heard the name, but squared himself again. "Well, for training proposes then, what would you do if you saw this?" Spike twisted his neck again and this forehead seemed to explode into thick ridges, his teeth elongated, and his eyes glowed yellow.

Tim jerked back, but kept Lucas and Jayde behind him with an outstretched arm. "Madre di Dio!" He yelled while crossing himself rapidly. An unseen force seemed to slam into the vampire as Spike flew backwards and crashed heavily into the door.

Spike stumbled several times, trying to stand. "How the bloody hell did you do that?" He glared at Willow, his yellow eyes making it look more severe. "Did you help him with that, witchlet?" Blood started to trickle from his mouth and he wiped at it angrily.

She shook her head, her eyes were wide and amazed. "No, I didn't do anything." Willow turned to Tim, "how did you do that?"

Looking at his hands numbly, he just blinked. "I… I have no idea."

"Well," Xander chimed in, grinning, "that was fun, do it again!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note: Just a fluffy and fun getting to know you chapter.**

* * *

"I feel like I should apologize or something." Tim told Spike as they walked down the street, trailing the rest of the group.

"Don't bother, it'll only make it worse." He snapped back, adjusting the large duffle bag containing the Buffy-bot parts on his shoulder. "You must have some witchy powers yourself."

Tim shook his head rapidly, "no, I've done anything like that. It freaks me out to much. I didn't even like reading the Latin in the spell for Jayde."

"No psychic powers?"

"That would actually make me interesting, so… no."

Lucas looked over his shoulder, while rolling his eyes. "It's your beliefs, Tim."

The two men stopped short and the group copied him. "What do you mean, Lucas?" Willow asked, furrowing her brow.

"Well, Tim is super religious, right? And vampires don't like crosses."

"Yeah, they burn us, so not our favorite decoration." Spike retorted.

"Right, so if someone really believes in the supremacy of their religion, it might give an extra push of power." Lucas explained to them.

Willow started to nod enthusiastically. "Of course! And the hellmouth always makes things like that stronger."

"How so?" Tim asked, staring at his hands again.

"A few years ago, there was this girl, she felt like everyone was ignoring her. She just disappeared one day." She sighed, "it's really sad actually."

"Fun place you've got here." Lucas said sardonically.

Xander nodded, and started walking again. "I've been saying that for years."

"It's home." Willow said with a shrug. "And speaking of home, we're here." She pointed to the two floor dwelling. "Um, you guys might want to let Xander and I go first. There may be screaming."

Xander started to back away, "or I could just sleep out here… under the stars… or in the ditch, I'm good either way."

"Come on monkey boy, take your lumps." Spike called from the front porch, perched on the railing with a smile of anticipation on his lips.

"I already have lumps." Xander mumbled. He walked up the steps and with a breath, opened the door.

Willow poked her head through the door before he enter. "Hey! Guess who I found!"

"So much for subtle, Will." He winced as three distinct screams could be heard. The SeaQuest crew watched in great amusement as he went down in a tangle of arms, legs, and long blonde and brown hair. They were alternating between smacking him, as Willow had, and hugging him tightly.

He struggled to his feet and managed to pull free. A blonde woman grabbed him by the back of the head and kissed him deeply. The other two, sat at his feet and watched fondly. "Anya…" he started before his mouth was full again.

Willow was giggling, but managed to speak, "Tara, Dawn, I want you to meet Lucas, Tim, and Jayde."

The youngest of the females stood suddenly, not having seen them before. "Hi." She waved shyly. "I'm Dawn, I've heard a lot about you guys."

"Um, hi, I'm sure you have, but… there was kind of a mix up…" Lucas tried to explain.

"Xander screwed up the spell didn't he?" She asked with a laugh.

"I spnahg!" Xander tried to defend himself, and finally wrenched himself away from Anya. "It was sneeze, alright?"

Tara shook her head. "You knew how touchy that kind of magic was. How could you do that?"

"How could I do an involuntary bodily function?" He asked, fighting to control Anya's roving hands. "An! Not now."

She pouted at him, "we can take Spike's room in the basement. He won't mind."

"I bloody well do!" Spike shouted from inside the house.

Willow motioned them in, "come on, it isn't safe out here, and we should get you guys something to eat."

They followed Xander inside, and through a living room, ending up in a cozy kitchen. Spike was already rooting around the fridge muttering to himself. When he pulled a clear plastic container full of a thick red liquid out, Lucas and Jayde gagged. Tim stared at it, turning a light shade of green, before turning away deliberately. "What?" Spike asked, reaching for a mug. "What'd you think I'd eat?" He poured the blood into the large white mug, "I nearly had to lick Xander's face, I'm so damn hungry…" Spike looked disgusted with himself. "And I hope I never have to say that again."

"I'll second that." Xander snorted, walking to the fridge. He groaned when he looked inside. "Come on healthy people, where's all the junk food?" He glanced over his shoulder, yelling into the living room, "hey Dawnie… I know you have doughnuts stashed somewhere."

"Nope." Willow came in, "the doughnut place was suddenly replaced by a car dealership a week ago." She opened a cupboard. "I think we have some sugary cereal though."

"No doughnuts? What does all the bad stuff happen to me?" Xander asked mournfully.

Willow slammed the box down on the counter and glowered at Spike. "That better not be my tree mug! I've told you not use that for blood! It stains the inside."

"Uh…" Spike carefully turned the cup so the decoration was facing away from her. "It's the biggest one." He finally said in a plaintive voice.

Lucas watched the exchanges around him with a wry smile on his face. This strange group, dealing with the possible eradication of their very existence, was like a family. It all made him feel a bit homesick for the ship and her crew. Willow continued to squabble with Spike and pushed the cereal on the house guests.

Xander caught his expression and passed him some dishes and drinks, "it isn't fancy, but it's homey."

"I was just thinking the same thing."

Anya entered the small kitchen and wrapped her arms around Xander. "Are you sure we can't use the basement, Spike? We'll even stay off your bed, we don't need one."

Lucas choked into his soda at her very thinly veiled implication. "Since when does he stay here, anyway?" Xander asked, glaring at the vampire. "I didn't think we liked him."

"You know what they say…" Anya purred in his ear. "Keep your friends close but your enemies within the range of your trebuchet."

Tim blinked at her as he took the box of cereal. "I don't think anyone says that."

"They did in my village."

"Where is that, anyhow? I'm having trouble placing your accent, but it's familiar."

Anya hesitated before answering, and Xander gave her a gentle squeeze. "It was called Sjornjost. I guess it's in Scandinavia now, but it wasn't when I lived there."

"What do you mean? That whole area has been settled for hundreds of years." Tim asked, shaking his head in confusion.

"I know, I left a thousand years ago." She replied brightly.

Tim's jaw dropped, and Xander laughed. "Anya use to be demon, but now she's normal like us."

"Normal?" Jayde snorted. "No one here is normal." She grinned, "I love it."

The group started chuckling and dug into their respective meals. Lucas raised eyebrow at the box in front of him. "I'm surprised you let this stuff in your home, Willow. Considering your uh… persuasion."

"My… persuasion? I know lucky charms isn't healthy, but we aren't all vegetarians, that's a stereotype."

He shook his head and there was a spark of mischief lurking in his eyes. "They're a Christian conspiracy against pagans."

"I… What?" Tara spoke up from her post in the corner of the kitchen. "What are you talking about?"

He grinned and pointed to the picture on the box. "The marshmallows are all very pagan; rainbows, stars, clovers, moons, and horseshoes." He counted off the shapes on his fingers. "They're fun, but in the end, not very good for you. The grains are in the shape of crosses, boring, but healthy, and what you know you should go for."

The crowd stared at him for several seconds before bursting into laughter. "I can see you eating it everyday, Tim." Lucas smirked.

Tim narrowed his eyes. "You didn't have a problem with my _persuasion_ when I blasted Spike across the store."

"Hey… I wouldn't say you blasted me…"

Tim continued without missing a beat. "I seem to remember you behind me."

Lucas shrugged, "you're the only officer here, I thought it was… prudent."

"I am, aren't I?" Tim returned thoughtfully. "Does that mean you'll follow my orders?"

The teen snorted, "as long as you aren't telling me when to eat and sleep, I'll think about it."

* * *

**Author's note: The lucky charms thing is not my invention. It's from Patton Oswalt, it's just one of my favorites. **


	8. Chapter 8

After the conversation died away, and the various meals were consumed, people started to yawn. "I think it's time for a place for everyone to sleep." Willow decided.

"Why don't Lucas and Jayde take Buffy's room, since the bot doesn't have to charge tonight?" Xander suggested. "Uh… if you don't mind sharing a bed." The young couple blushed and shook their heads. "I think Anya wants to head to our place, so you don't need to worry about us." Anya reacted by grabbing his hand and tugging him from the room. "I'll see you tomorrow!" He called before something was covering his mouth again.

"Well that makes it easier, and we don't have to listen to them…" she made a disturbed face at the thought. "Tara, will you make up the couch for Tim?"

"I'll help you." Tim jumped up, ever the gentleman, joining her.

"Um, I can show you Buff… I mean, your room, if you want." Dawn offered Lucas and Jayde quietly.

"Why don't you go ahead, Lucas? I'll help clean up here." Jayde said, not quite meeting his eyes.

He furrowed his brow as he studied her troubled appearance, but nodded. "Yeah… uh, sure. I'll see you up there."

"I'm pretty sure we have some clothes here from Xander." Dawn explained as she led him from the room. "They may have blood stains on them, but they're clean."

"Are they all Hawaiian shirts?"

She grimaced, "mostly. It's one habit of his we can't break. And we should have something to fit Jayde between the three of us." Dawn added before leaving with him.

Spike slipped the bloody mug in the sink, and escaped Willow annoyed stare, retreating to the basement. She huffed and started cleaning it. Jayde hesitated, playing with her own glass. "Can I… um… ask you something?"

Willow turned off the water. "Yeah, honey, what's wrong?"

She saw Jayde's distressed expression, and quickly crossed to her. "I… I was wondering why I got so lightheaded after we went through the portal. No one else did."

"Oh… well, it could be a few things."

"I'm weak." Jayde blurted out, rubbing tears off her face.

Willow gasped slightly, "no… no sweetie. You basically did the spell right?" She nodded silently. "That was some very powerful magic, I'm guessing you've never done anything like that." Jayde chewed her lip and shook her head. "It just took a lot of out of you."

"Is that all? It couldn't anything else?" She whispered.

"Lucas said something about you being injured, was it bad? If you are… if your _body_ was weak from that, it wouldn't help." Jayde pulled up the sleeve of her shirt, exposing the long cut on her arm. "Oh, that is bad." Willow carefully touched it, "do you want me to heal it?"

"You can do that?"

Willow closed her eyes, and slightly tightened her hand over the wound. Jayde felt her arm heat up and her muscles tighten. She whimpered quietly at the sensation, but soon let out a breath of relief. "There, it will be a little tight from the scar tissue for a while, but it should be better." Willow smiled at the still anxious looking girl.

Jayde inspected herself, "thank you, it feels a lot better. Um… could you do another?" She checked over her shoulder and pushed up the other sleeve.

"What is that from?" Willow asked, regarding the shorter cut.

"I… I…" Jayde swallowed and looked away. "When SeaQuest was taken over… I panicked, this…" She tightened her fists and brought her arm up. "It was the fastest way for me to regain control of myself." Tears threatened to fall again, "I just don't want Lucas to see it."

"We'll take care of it." Willow promised. "But you should talk to him about this. He really cares about you." She grinned at the blushing girl. "I can tell."

"Oh… um… that actually brings up another question…"

Tara returned to the kitchen to find Willow and Jayde in deep discussion. She hesitated at the door, waiting. Willow waved her in, "come on baby, we're just talking."

Jayde raised an eyebrow, "baby? Oh… well I guess that answers a different question…"

Willow nodded, smiling, "as for the other… we'll take care of it tomorrow."

"Thanks, Willow… for everything." Jayde paused and hugged the red head, leaving to find Lucas.

"What's going on?" Tara asked, after she left.

Willow let out a sigh. "She was scared about how she reacted to the time travel magic." She shook her head. "She thinks she's weak for it." Tara nodded sadly, understanding. Willow took her by the hand, "come on, we have a lot of work to do tomorrow finding our big bad."

Tara couldn't resist taking her girlfriend in her arms. "I love you, you know that, right?" Willow nodded in her chest. "If… if something happens and we're changed, or I am… just remember that."

"Of course baby."

Jayde peeked through an open door to find Lucas staring at dozens of pictures setup on a dresser mirror. "What are those?"

"I think these," he pointed a few showing Xander looking saddened, "are from right after I left… or I leave." He sighed, "he seems really upset. I wish I knew what we were like together."

"Well," Jayde sat on the bed, "does it really matter?"

"What do you mean?"

"You guys are seem to be getting along and everything. It's just a little different because your ages were closer before… uh… later." She wrinkled her face, "this stuff is confusing."

Lucas chuckled and sat next to her. "I like him, he's cool. But I feel like he's waiting for me to react a certain way around him. And I don't know if that means I'll become that person."

"Is that person bad?"

"No… not like that. I don't think I can explain it." He paused and chewed his lip. "If this is happening to us now, and what happens to him and I in a year… or a few years ago for him…" Lucas shook his head, trying to come to terms with the math. "What if I'm never that guy to him? Does that mean he won't come looking for me when they need help?"

"You don't think you'll be the type of person who drops everything to help someone who really needs it? Because I don't think that'll ever change." Lucas dropped his head with a blush. "You're talking a time paradox."

He shrugged, "yeah, I guess."

Jayde flopped down on the bed. "I really have no answer for that."

Lucas yawned, "me either and it's giving me a headache. Are you ready to sleep?"

"Uh… yeah, but I think we need to talk… or Willow thinks we should." She sat up again, and hugged her knees.

"Do you think we should?" He raised an eyebrow worriedly.

Jayde nodded, "yeah… probably."

"Did I do something?"

"What? No… not at all. It's um… me, and I uh, I think you'll be mad at me." Her voice dropped to a whisper. Lucas waited patiently for her to continue. Taking a deep breath, she pulled up her shirt sleeve. "Willow healed my arm."

Lucas took it in his hands and probed the red scar tissue. "Wow! That's really great. Did it hurt?"

"No, it felt weird though. I uh… I asked her fix my other one too." Jayde fidgeted with her other cuffs and pushing it up, closing her eyes tightly.

"Oh… when did that happen?"

"I… I did it, after Bentley took over the ship. I didn't think I'd be able to deal with being away from Kristin with all of that going on. And… and I was freaking out pretty badly. It helped me… kinda… feel better." She pushed the words out in a rush, keeping her eyes closed.

There was silence from Lucas, Jayde risked looking at him and was shocked to see tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry, I know it's messed up…"

He shook his head, "no… I'm not mad at you for god's sake. I'm pissed that you were so scared because of all that crap." He stood and ran a hand through his hair angrily. "I'm mad that Julianna messed with the interface and caused all of it. I'm mad that she hurt you. I'm mad that York went crazy." Lucas took a breath to steady himself, "I'm mad that you had to do that because of what some people wanted to take something away from the UEO."

He sat again, and took her arm. He ran a thumb over the spot. "I don't like that you did it, and I hope you never do again, but… I understand. I understand being so scared you don't think you'll be able to ever get over it." Lucas leaned his forehead against her's. "If you're ever that scared again, tell me."

"Ok," she whispered.

"Is there anything else we need to talk about? You were with Willow for a while."

Jayde pursed her lips before answering, "possibly, but it needs to wait until tomorrow."

He narrowed his eyes, but they sparked playfully. "You accept me to sleep after you say that?"

"Yup, deal with it genius boy."


	9. Chapter 9

"Do you want me to work on the bot for you first? Or help look through your suspects?" Lucas asked the next morning. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to find anything on them that you haven't… unless I hack the NSA. They might have something, but I would really rather not do that again. Captain Bridger wouldn't let me near a computer for a full week after the last time." He shook his head ruefully, "it was like torture."

"The NSA?" Willow asked in confusion. "I've never heard of that. Maybe they aren't around yet."

Lucas chuckled, "oh, they are, you just don't know about them yet."

Willow thought for a few moments, "honestly, I think it's more important that the Buffy-bot is up and running. If we find who's doing this, we may need back up. They could have an army behind them."

"That's comforting." He said dryly, Willow shrugged in reply. "Ok, where should I work on it?"

She glanced around the crowded house. "Um, why don't you go down in the basement? Spike shouldn't give you too much grief if you're fixing her. And he may have gone to get some blood, I know we're nearly out."

"How does he get around during the daytime? Or is that a made up thing?"

Willow made a face, "he uses the sewer tunnels. He knows where the dry ones are but sometimes he still ends up very stinky."

"Ew…"

"Yeah, I know."

"What's the story with him anyhow? Why did he get so pissed about the stuff Xander said? I know you're all really upset about her being gone, but his response…" Lucas asked, picking up the bag of parts.

Willow sighed, "he was in love her… in his own creepy soulless way. He… uh, was the one we took the bot from. Someone made it for him, and programed it to uh…. react in a certain way for him."

Lucas wrinkled his face, "that's a whole level of wrong."

"You have no idea."

"Do you want me to look at the programing too? I might be able to fix some of it." He asked, trying to change the subject before the thought about it to much.

Willow seemed surprised that she didn't think of it herself. "Oh! Yes, please. You'll have to use my older laptop, I left my other one at the store last night." She opened a desk drawer in the living room and handed him the thick boxy device.

He took it doubtfully, "is this thing powerful enough? It looks ancient."

She laughed out loud at his expression. "It was completely rebuilt a few years ago, not everything works perfectly with the parts that are still old, but the rest is better than anything I could buy. I think you're the only one who could do better, and only with all new components."

"Oh really? Did you build it?" Lucas was aware he was missing an important bit of information.

"No, you did."

"Oh…" A smirk crossed his face, "well, I guess I know who to blame if something goes wrong." Lucas slipped the cumbersome laptop into the duffle. "So what you guys doing today?"

"Tara and I are going to help Anya at the store for a while. I'll be doing some searching for our bad guy when we're there. And… I've asked Tim to join us." Willow didn't exactly want to ask permission to steal Lucas' current CO away, but she worded the comment carefully.

He raised an eyebrow, "he's ok in the magic shop?"

"We're getting in a shipment of holy water and some very old religious relics today. I thought he was going to burst out of his skin if I didn't ask him along." Willow had a thoughtful expression on her face. "And I'd love to test out just how much he can do."

"Tim, the supermonk." Lucas laughed, "somehow, I should have seen that coming."

Willow laughed along with him. "me too. After the fit he threw when I messed with his crucifix…"

"What did you do?"

Willow looked sheepish, "I uh… changed his necklace into a depiction of Nantosuelta in the nude. She's a fertility goddess." Wincing, she added, "he wore it for a full day before he found out. Ben couldn't stop staring. It kind of gave it away."

Lucas burst out laughing. "And he still spoke to you after that?"

"Barely," she sighed. "But then he asked me to show him some stuff." She glanced at a clock, "I have to get going, we'll tell you a few more stories before this over with, I'm sure Xander is dying to."

"I'm surprised you guys are still open with all this going on." Lucas pointed out.

She shrugged, "we look at it like offering emergency supplies. The people in this town have gotten used to a certain amount of weirdness. They always to try and protect themselves, then we have to save them from the mountain trolls they've released." Willow grinned slightly, "we just have to make sure Anya doesn't try to gouge them too badly."

"Dawn is staying here, so Xander will be over soon to keep an eye on her." She added, "he tends to break things at the shop anyhow."

Lucas nodded and started for the basement door. "Ok, Jayde is still sleeping, if you see her before you leave, let her know where I am?"

"Of course, did you two talk last night?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Yeah, some. But she said I had to wait for today for something…?"

Willow shook her head at his unasked question. "I promised not to tell you."

He sighed, "I didn't think I'd get that lucky." Pulling the door open and trotting down the stairs, he muttered to himself. "I never get that lucky."

Lucas surveyed the basement in surprise. He had figured there would be some sign of a soulless demon living down there. There was no coffin, blood splatters, or dirt, nothing popular fiction would have him believe. As it was, there was only a simple bed set up next to a TV and a pile of clothes. Spike was nowhere to be seen in the well lit room.

After locating a toolbox on a storage shelf, he sat on the mattress, pulling the parts out and plugging the laptop into a port on the torso. He let the data download onto the computer and started pulling the servos from the legs with a pair of pilers. After some time, there was a ping and he looked at the information. "This isn't too bad, I should be able to completely reprogram it in a day or two." He mused to himself.

Reattaching the arms with the unbroken gears, he then fixed the head into place. It blinked at him and the mouth moved. "Gah! That is so damn freaky. I'll never be ok with that!" Lucas shuddered and laid the partially completed body aside.

Lucas turned away and started to type on the computer. He heard some small noises behind him, and tried to ignore the robot's struggles. After entering a few lines of programing, he leaned back and started to stretch his arms. When he came in contact with another arm, he jerked forward in shock.

A hand seized his wrist and pulled it back behind him, forcing it up against his back. "Let go!" The pressure increased in response, pushing the hand almost to the bottom of his skull. Lucas heard the grinding pop before he felt the pain burn through his shoulder. Screaming in agony, he threw his body to the side in a desperate attempt to get away. His arm was suddenly freed and he brought it up close to his chest protectively, he tried to scramble away. He ended up sliding off the edge of the bed and looked up, while sitting on the hard floor.

The half remade robot stared down at him, her features fixed in an expression of rage. It pushed itself off the bed and landed on top of him, grasping for his throat. Lucas tried to block the reaching fingers with the hand on his uninjured arm, but wasn't able to support himself with the other. He fell back, lying flat on the floor.

The Buffy-bot grabbed at his neck again, this time getting a grip. Lucas let out a strangled scream and attempted to pry the fingers free. His airway being closed off added to the weight of the robot, depleted his oxygen supply that much faster. Stars appeared before his eyes as he fought for air and an escape.

The stars became a dark tunnel, the robot leaned in closer as he started to completely black out. With a warm smile, she whispered, "knock knock." Lucas whimpered painfully one more time before everything went black and he limply laid on the floor.


	10. Chapter 10

Xander and Jayde sat next to each other on the floor, beside Lucas' unconscious body laying on the bed. They were speaking quietly, trying to ignore the feeling of deja vu they were both experiencing, waiting for him to wake up.

"You really don't think we should bring him to a doctor?" Jayde asked softly.

Xander sighed, "we tried that a few times in the beginning, they just always think we're up to something illegal, and ask a lot of questions. And he's breathing ok, gonna have some nasty bruises though." He regarded her few a few moments. "Where did you learn how to put a shoulder back into joint?"

"Oh… uh… military camp."

He blinked in shock. "Why were you in military camp? Did you do something to be sent there? Rob a few banks?" He teased.

Jayde swallowed, and tried to keep her voice level. She knew she couldn't really blame Xander for joking about it. "I killed someone."

"Oh…"

"It was self-defense, but I was pretty messed up afterwards."

"Oh… oh geez… I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it was while ago."

"But how? You're just a kid now." Jayde glared at him. "Well, you are."

"I was ten."

"Oh… And I thought being in Sunnydale was a bad way to grow up." Xander studied the floor, cringing at his own lack of tack.

"And what about you?" She tried to turn the conversation away from herself.

He lifted his head. "Huh?"

"You knew how to help me right away. Don't think I didn't notice that."

Xander stared at the floor again. "I've done it a few times… for myself."

"Monsters?"

He shook his head and continued to look away from her. "Um, only once…"

Jayde furrowed her forehead, "but if it wasn't monst… oh… I see. I'm sorry."

Xander shrugged, "don't be, I survived, and it was a while ago." He repeated back to her with a wry grin.

She couldn't help smiling back at him, but her expression darkened after a few seconds. "When is Willow coming back?"

"She said they'd be back in about fifteen minutes, they just need to close everything up. Why?"

"I just don't like them out there alone, who knows what'll happen around here." She sighed and leaned her head against the wall. "Not that being here is any better."

Xander copied her sigh, "I know it seems like that sometimes, but at least I was able to get Buffy-bot off of him." He reached out and put his arm across her shoulders. She leaned into him, grateful for the contact. "We're all better off sticking together."

"Do you think it's repairable this time?" Jayde asked after a few minutes of silence. "The robot I mean."

Xander shrugged, "not sure, and ax to the face isn't something most murderous robots survive, but if anyone can fix it, Lucas can."

"If he'll even want to after this."

"Someone will have to fix her. Without her, I end up as the cannon fodder, I'm very ok with her filling that role." Xander joked, Jayde chuckled with him.

"Only Lucas can come to a place filled with real monsters and be attacked by technology." Jayde groaned, rubbing her face.

Xander nodded, "yeah, I thought that was the kind of thing that only happens to me." He leaned back and rolled his eyes. "At least we don't have to deal with Adam again, he was a nice little combo of the two."

"Adam?"

"Crazy top secret military project to combine demons and cyborg technology. It was fun." Xander explained dryly.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "That's … interesting. Lucas may have even been fascinated by something like that."

Xander shook his head. "No way, it was made by the same people who made the chip that Stark put in his head."

"Oh…" Jayde winced, "um… how bad was that… I mean, is it going to be?"

He shook his head again. "Don't ask… I'm still not sure how he kept saying no to her. It got… really bad."

"And there's no way for him to avoid that?"

Xander shrugged nonchalantly, but appeared troubled. "That's the thing, if he does, he'll never come here. And if he doesn't come here, I won't go to you guys for help. So he won't have the warning about it."

"That's kind of what we were talking about last night." Xander cocked his head at her expectantly. "He's worried he isn't the person you remember and might not be later."

"Oh… yeah… he's a little different, but I understand that. He's just not as trusting… I guess. But he was dropped into something scary and Buffy saved his ass. It's lot easier to take something on faith… um…" He blushed slightly, "I mean, just accept what people are telling you that way." Xander laughed shortly, but there was no true humor to it. "Dropping in like I did and demanding help like a jerk… may have not been the right way to handle it."

"But you were right, it is what they do… what we do." She amended, "and he was planning to help you, even if we hadn't had to leave like we did."

"I know, but I think he wanted to help me to a nice padded cell too."

Jayde laughed, "that was discussed."

"That wouldn't be the first time," Xander mused. He chewed his lip quietly for a while. "So... um... Willow told me what you guys were talking about last night." He blurted out.

Jayde whipped her head around to stare at him. She opened her mouth, but was interrupted by a dry cough from the bed. They were both on their feet instantly. "Lucas?"

Blue eyes started to open, then squeezed shut in a grimace of pain. "Oh... crap, what happened?"

"The Buffy-bot rejected your programming." Xander informed him. "Don't move to much, your shoulder was dislocated."

Lucas shifted his arm and grimaced again. "Oh... that I remember. How did I piss her off so bad?"

"That's what I'd like to know." Willow said from the doorway. "She never did anything like that to me."

"I'm just special." Lucas whispered hoarsely. "Do I also remember her trying to strangle me? Or was that some kind of messed up dream?"

"Nope," Xander shook his head. "I heard you yell and when I opened the door, I found her going all homicidal. I grabbed the battle ax and started chopping."

Jayde smiled at the statements, but still blinked away tears. "Any other time, I'd really worried about being in a house that people keep random battle axes around. Now I'm just grateful."

Willow crossed to the bedside and laid a cloth sling on Lucas's lap. "You'll need to wear that for a while. And I have some anti-inflammatory pills for you too."

"Will you be able to heal him like you did for me?" Jayde asked quietly.

The red headed witch hesitated. "It will have to wait a day or two. With the swelling, I won't know if there is more damage." She looked at Lucas, "I'm sorry, I know it's probably painful."

"Just keep the sling on, I know it's annoying, but it helps a lot." Xander put in. Willow glanced to him, a sad smile on her lips.

Lucas nodded and tried to sit up, Jayde reached out to help him, but his annoyed face told her he needed to do it himself. He hissed in pain, pulling the sling over his head and sliding his arm in. "I'm ok, how much time did we lose?"

"Not much," Tim answered him, joining them in the room. "After Willow showed me their list of suspects, I found something right away." He seemed uneasy, and his eyes flicked over the objects in the room before coming to rest on Lucas again.

"And?"

Tim sighed, "it may be even worse than we thought."

"And?"

"We think we know who's behind it." Willow broke in, seeing Tim's hesitancy.

Lucas closed his eyes and leaned against the pillow. "Just tell me who it is."

"Well… um, it could be someone named Warren Meers. He built the Buffy-bot." Willow said, looking sidelong at Tim.

"OK? So he knows computer stuff. That's not bad. That's why you wanted me here anyhow."

"Do you recognize the name?" Tim asked, watching Lucas closely.

He opened his eyes again. "Should I?"

Tim looked down, unwilling to tell him the news while facing him. "Lucas, Meers Industries was the label on the side of the box the mindweave came in. They made the neural interface…"


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Happy Mother's Day!**

* * *

Tim watched Lucas fumble with the parts of the Buffy-bot with an expression of concern on his face. It was two days since it attacked the teen and he had spent the time trying to repair the damage Xander did with the ax. He was wearing the sling, but his lips were pressed together in a thin line and his face was white from the pain. Lucas didn't complain, but anyone could see he was hurting quite a bit. Tim sighed and left the living room, finding Anya in the kitchen.

"Did he fix her yet?" She asked, looking over some papers from the magic shop.

"No, and I'm worried about him. I've seen him after an injury, even if he's pretending nothing is hurt, he's never this quiet." Tim rubbed a hand over his face. "I'm afraid something else is bothering him."

"Have you asked him?" She looked up, and Tim saw that the pages had probable addresses for Warren listed, along with possible defensive capabilities. While the Scooby Gang wanted to rush in the minute they found him, Tim insisted they wait, both to get some intel and for Lucas to heal enough to help if needed.

"No, I didn't exactly want to try. Lucas can be very stubborn about that kind of thing. He's always worried that people think he's some weak kid. Even after what happened with the Eco-terrorists, he wouldn't talk to anyone until Ben and I cornered him in his room. That was a bad idea, he had a panic attack and broke down. I guess it helped in the end, but he was pretty embarrassed for a while. And mad, extremely mad."

"But why doesn't he just tell someone when he's upset? I don't understand why guys do that."

Tim smiled at her annoyance "it's just a thing most males do."

"Well that's stupid."

"I know," he sighed, "the connection of this time and the interface really shocked him. But I think Lucas will be fine after we get this taken care of, he always bounces back pretty quickly."

"How can you be so optimistic? How do you know this won't be the thing that we can't defeat?" Anya crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, seemingly frustrated at his positive attitude.

He shrugged, "I guess I just have to believe I have God on my side."

"Oh you do? Which god? I know a few personally too. They might help us if you ask nicely." She dropped her arms and looked at him with new enthusiasm.

Tim opened and closed his mouth several times trying to think of a proper answer. "I... I... Uh... Ok, I'll ask him." He walked away from her, shaking his head.

He started to head back into the living room but stopped when he saw Xander and Lucas working together. "How does it feel?" Xander asked hesitantly, holding the damaged robot head steady for him.

"Hurts like a bitch." Lucas admitted scowling. "The sling helps some, but I can't work very well with it on."

He leaned away from his work and ran his good hand through his mop of blonde hair. "Thanks for helping me… and just being here. I… um, I'm not really comfortable being alone with this thing." Lucas snorted, "I'd even be ok with Mr. Ogre teeth being around right now."

"Ogre teeth? Oh, you mean Spike?" Xander started to laugh, "I'll have to remember that one, but it doesn't really work."

"Why not?"

Xander rolled his eyes and smirked. "Ogres have an under bite, that's the teeth that stick out. A vamp's main fangs are on the top."

Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Thanks… I'll remember that for the next time I run into an ogre. Now I know the difference."

"Nah, the smell will hit you way before you get close enough to see teeth."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, they don't really bathe." He looked at Lucas searchingly. "So… um… how are you?"

"What do you mean?" Lucas narrowed his eyes.

"Oh well… you know… You um, have just been really quiet the last few days… Since um…"

"Since we found out that no matter what we do here, Warren will go free and be able to mess with me and the ship in the future?" Lucas snapped back, his face turned from fury to ashamed in moments. "I'm sorry… I just feel like this is kind of hopeless." He smiled apologetically at Xander.

Xander smiled back. "I get that, don't worry. We've been through a lot of stuff like this… well, not exactly like this, but bad stuff."

"How do you deal with it?"

He shrugged, "I donno know, I guess you just do whatever you have to in order to survive. And to help the people you care about survive too."

Lucas eyed him critically, "you can be pretty insightful when you try."

"And that's why I don't try too hard, people might expect it of me." Xander grinned back.

The quip earned a groan from Lucas, "you sound like Ben."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Good… most of the time."

Tim quietly stepped back from the door, feeling that things were working out well without him interfering. Anya was still in the kitchen, now watching him oddly. "What's wrong?"

"I… I'm not sure…" She blinked several times and leaned on the counter. Tim recognized the expression and made a wild grab for her. Anya gasped once before she disappeared. "Baise!" He cursed harshly and ran from the room.

"What happened?" Lucas stood suddenly when he saw the look on Tim's face.

"Xander…" Tim started, unsure of how to tell the man. "I'm sorry, but the timeline shifted again. Um… your… Anya… she's gone."

Xander blinked at him in confusion. "Anya? Who's Anya? I've never heard of her."

* * *

"We need to find him now, before anyone else vanishes." Tim tried to order in his most official voice.

Willow looked skeptical. "You told us to wait before, and none of us know this Anya."

"I explained all this…" Tim said in frustration, trying to control himself.

"I agree with Tim." Tara said cautiously, trying to be the voice of reason. "If she was moved or taken out of the timeline, we wouldn't know who she was because we didn't see it, right?" She received several head nods. "And if someone else is taken out, we won't know unless we all stay together and stop this."

Willow wrapped an arm around her girlfriend's waist. "ok, but I don't want Dawn to come with us. Someone needs to stay here with her." She glanced at the vampire sitting in the corner. "Spike?"

"Of course, you know I'll keep an eye on the little pet." He said with an eye roll.

"Hey! I'm the same age you guys were when you started fighting demons. I don't need a babysitter." Dawn complained. She glowered at Spike threateningly, "if I have to stay with you, I'll talk about boys all night and paint your nails."

"What color?" Spike challenged.

"Anything but black."

"Oh bloody hell…"

Tim interrupted the argument, "Lucas is staying here too."

Lucas jumped up, and bit back a scream as he jostled his arm. "I definitely don't need a babysitter. And you need me with you." He struggled to regain his composure, "I'm fine." He said through gritted teeth.

Jayde slowly stood up and put her hand on his uninjured shoulder, "I'm staying here, I'd like you to as well, Lucas."

"Why are you staying?" He asked in surprise.

"We just think it's for the best." Willow interrupted when Jayde didn't answer. "She... um... neither of you know the area."

Lucas looked at the group gathered, "fine… I'll stay with Dawn and Jayde. I'll see if I can get any farther with the robot."

"I'll help you." Xander offered.

"Oh great, now it's a right proper tosser party." Spike said scornfully. "I think I'll stick with the witches and uptight navy boy here."

Tim nodded, "we'll need the extra protection, and that makes it an even split."

"Perfect compromise," Dawn said scathingly, "no one is happy, and we'll probably all die."

"Those are the best ones." Xander teased. "And at least this way you and I can talk about boys without Spike being a jerk about it." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her from the room.

Tim watched them with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Huh... I think the timeline just made Xander gay."

"Nope," Willow laughed, "we wouldn't remember him any other way if it did. He's just being protective and trying to keep her from sneaking out. I've seen it before."

"Do you think talking about boys with Lucas will keep him in line?" Jayde asked Willow, unsuccessfully hiding a smile.

Lucas snorted, "only if they've designed software."


	12. Chapter 12

"Peeing should be fun." Xander suddenly remarked, sitting on the couch next to Lucas.

"What?!" Dawn exclaimed, sitting on the floor leaned against his leg. Jayde leaned over from the other end of the couch to look at him incredulously while laughing.

Xander blushed, realizing what he had blurted out. "I… I just meant, if we're going to have to stay together all of the time… Um… you know, so we'll know if someone goes poof?"

Lucas shook his head, chuckling, and returned to sliding a microchip into the back of the Buffy-bot's head. "I think it's nearly done. I can't really do anything about the face though." He flipped it to face him and wrinkled his nose at the jagged wound with metal showing through.

"It's a battle scar." Xander attempted to regain some poise.

Jayde took the head from him, "where did you get the extra parts? Willow said they haven't been delivered yet."

"Oh… um," Lucas looked sheepish, "I took some of the circuits out of her laptop. I'll have to build her another one."

Xander shrugged, "she'll understand."

"So, are we ready to fire this thing up?" Lucas asked, using his good arm to point to the dock the head attached to for Jayde.

She hesitated, "is this going to end badly again?

"No, I installed a verbal kill switch. She'll turn off when anyone says it."

"It better be easy to remember, I don't want to be reciting a monologue if she tries to kill you again." Xander said dryly.

Lucas snorted, "can you remember 'Buffy, down'?"

"Yeah, got it." Xander said, with a laugh.

"I'll feel a lot better with her up and running." Dawn said quietly. "Like we have a chance." She looked sadly at the robot as Jayde finished attaching the head. "I know it's not the same as…"

Xander gave her shoulder a brief pat, "I know, Dawnie, it's ok." He sighed, "and since the best fighters are out there right now, it'll be nice to have some of our own backup."

"Hey, we can fight." Jayde argued, scowling at him. "Or… well, I can… kind of." She amended, looking sideways at Lucas.

He slowly turned his head to her and glared slightly. "If we are all ready…" Lucas pushed a button on the bot's torso and folded the fake skin back into place.

The robot lurched and blinked at them. "I am damaged."

"Yes, we know…" Lucas started.

"I must find Willow. She will repair me."

"No, not right now. Willow is… um… busy." He tried to convince her.

The Buffy-bot tilted her head at him. "But I am damaged."

"I've fixed as much of you as I can without new replacement parts, you'll be fine." Lucas said slowly, watching her carefully.

She looked at everyone gathered around her, "If you can't fix me, and Willow is busy, I need to find Master."

"Master? Who's your master?" Xander asked, making a disturbed face as he did so. "I may not want to know the answer to that."

"Master is my maker."

"You mean Warren?" Dawn asked, standing suddenly. "Do you know where he is?"

"Yes, of course. He put a tracking node inside of me in case I needed to find him." The bot said, blinking her lopsided eyes.

"Buffy… uh… bot, can you tell us where he is, right now?" Lucas was keeping his distance from her, but started to step forward in his eagerness.

"No."

He looked crestfallen. "No? Why not?"

She tried to shrug, but one shoulder stayed up. With a frown, she pushed it back down. "I have to track him, but you can follow me."

"I'll call Willow." Xander jumped up and ran for the phone. He dialed and rolled his eyes. "Of course she turned it… Hey, it's Xander, Lucas got the Buffy-bot working. She has a tracking… thing and can take us to Warren…" He trailed off as the robot started to walk to the door. He slammed the phone down. "Not yet, we have to wait for the others."

"I need service, now." She said in a lofty tone. "I will not wait."

Jayde ran to the weapons chest near her and pulled out a few things. Xander took his ax and she slipped a dagger into her belt. After some hesitation, she handed a bat to Dawn and with a smile, gave Lucas the pitchfork. He sighed, "I'm never living that one down, am I?"

The robot was walking determinately out of the house and humans ran after her. "If Willow asks, we had no choice but to bring you along, Dawn." Xander called over his shoulder.

"I wouldn't miss this for anything!" She answered, her step bouncing with glee. "I hope I get to hit something finally!"

"You're kind of a weird kid." Jayde pointed out.

Dawn giggled, "I know, but I'm not actually a kid. I was a key made of pure energy. Some monks made me a person."

"Oh… that's… new." Jayde answered with wide eyes.

"It's Sunnydale." Xander grinned, "come on, she's getting too far ahead." The group jogged after the robot in the fading evening light.

She turned down a street labeled 'Sleepy Hollow'. Lucas sighed, "people need to stop naming things 'hollow' it never has a good result."

"Especially 'Sleepy Hollow' in Sunnydale. I'm surprised we haven't had the headless horseman come charging though here." Xander groaned, "and now that I've said that…"

"Hey, she's turning again." Dawn interrupted, "she's going into the warehouse district. Another great sign."

Xander stopped walking. "we have a warehouse district? Since when?"

"Oh, you know, those two warehouses…" Dawn giggled again. "I don't think there is an actual definition for district."

"It has to be more than two," Xander snorted.

Jayde waved at them to be quiet. "She found it." The group followed her finger and watched the robot walk up to the door. "Come on." Jayde hurried to duck behind some garbage cans, and they followed her.

The Buff-bot knocked on a door, after a minute it opened and a tall black haired male looked out. "I need service, master."

The male recoiled slightly when he saw her and her disfigured face. "What are you talking about, why are you here?"

"Lucas was unable to fix me fully, and Willow is busy. I need service." The robot stated simply.

He looked over her shoulder, "who's Lucas?"

She turned half way and pointed to the hunkered down group. "He's there, with his friends. They wanted to know where you were, so they came with."

"You brought someone here?!" The man yelled.

Xander stood, knowing that hiding was pointless. "Yeah, and we have some questions for you, Warren."

"What questions?" He growled back. "You already know I made the robot for Spike. I haven't made anything like that since. You guys aren't worth the trouble."

"Ok," Dawn said, waving her bat menacingly as she approached him. "What about time travel? Have you done anything like that?"

Warren sputtered at her, trying to look innocent, "wha…. What are you talking about… that… that isn't possible."

"Changing the timeline is." Xander snapped, coming to stand in front of Dawn. "And as someone who has gone to the future and back twice, I know that it is." He brought his ax up, "now, what did you do?"

"I… I…" Warren stammered, watching the group close in. He suddenly spun to face the robot. "Code Alfa six."

The Buffy-bot jerked and stared at him. "Yes, master?"

"Stop them." He commanded.

She stepped to Jayde and wrapped her arms around her, squeezing. Jayde tried to get her arms free, but was locked in the vice like grip. "Now," Warren said smugly, "you need to leave me alone or I'll let her be crushed."

"Buffy, down!" Lucas barked.

The robot lessened her hold for a moment before retightening it. Warren raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You almost over rode my programing, I'm impressed."

"Yeah," Xander smirked, "Lucas is a genius hacker from the future, and he can do pretty much anything you can do, but much better."

"Oh?" Warren turned to eye the blonde teen. "That's interesting."

Dawn groaned, "damn it Xander…"

"Oh… uh… I meant he's really good at hacky sack… we should all go play right now." Xander winced, everyone stared at him. "Ok, even I'll admit that was stupid."

Warren shook his head, "I can't believe you guys managed to find me. It had to have been dumb luck." He stepped further from the door. "Why don't you all drop your weapons and come inside, we can have a nice long talk. Bring her." He ordered the robot.

The Buffy-bot started to shuffle forward, forcing Jayde with her. When Jayde began to fight back and tried to free herself, and the arms squeezed tighter. She let out a cry of pain when she felt and heard a crack from her ribcage. "Let her go!" Lucas snarled, trying to loosen the arms. "You're hurting her. Buffy, down!"

Warren laughed, "maybe you aren't such a great hacker, you always need a backup in case things go against you." He reached to the small of his back and brought out a pistol. "Or two."

"Let Jayde go, and we'll come inside." Xander blurted. The others looked at him in surprise. "Please… you can't hurt her… she's pregnant…"


	13. Chapter 13

Lucas' face was white with shock as he looked at Jayde. "What… what is he talking about?" He managed to whisper. She smiled weakly, her face as pale as his.

Warren's sighed, "fine, let her go, but hold on to her arm." The robot obeyed, and Jayde was able to take a deep breath, gingerly holding her ribs with one hand. "You three," he waved his gun, "drop what you're carrying and get inside."

The weapons clattered to the ground and they walked into the warehouse in front of Warren. He slammed the door and locked it. Inside, there was a large room filled with computer equipment, all running programs. Jayde started to pull away from the robot, but couldn't unwrap the fingers. She glared at Warren, and he huffed. "You can completely let her go." He paused and made a show of pointing his gun at all of them. "But don't try anything."

Lucas helped Jayde to a chair, and crouched beside her. His eyes were wide and he seemed to have difficulty breathing. "Is it true?" He finally asked in a hushed murmur. "We... It was only once... And you said you were on the... But it was only a few days ago, how do you know?" His brain scrambled for answers.

She steadied him with one hand. "Kristin gave me strong antibiotics so my arm wouldn't get infected, they can mess up the pill. And Willow said because of us going through time got so botched, it's actually been nearly a month since... we..." She trailed off looking troubled and sighed. "When I was so light headed and no one else was, I kind of figured…"

"Oh... Oh geez... Captain Bridger is going to kill me." He responded, looking terrified.

Jayde shook her head, "I don't..."

"Ok, can we stop the after school special?" Warren asked angrily. He turned to one of the computers, "now, if you'll all be quiet, I need to adjust your timelines and get rid of you."

"No!" Lucas commanded, "if... If you let them go, I'll help you."

"Why do you think I need help?" Warren asked scornfully.

Lucas smiled grimly, "because, like everyone else, you had that greedy look in your eyes when Xander said I was a hacker. And..." he raised his good hand to stop Warren's open mouth. "If everything was going smoothly, you wouldn't be hiding here, you would have everyone worshiping you."

Warren closed his mouth with a snap and glared. "Ok... I'll admit, some things have gotten out of control. I'll let the girls go, but not Xander, he's caused me almost as much trouble as the rest of his stupid gang."

"I wouldn't leave Lucas here anyway." Xander snorted defensively.

Warren and Lucas stared at each other both trying to intimidate the other. Lucas let out a breath and nodded. "Deal, but I want them safely at the house before I do a thing for you."

"I'll do my best, but nighttime in Sunnydale isn't the best place for two young women." Warren sneered.

"Give me away to contact you once we get there." Jayde offered, "email or something." She turned away from Warren and looked into Lucas' eyes, trying to convey that she had an idea. He flicked his own eyes between them and inclined his head slightly.

Warren nodded and walked to a doorway, "then it's settled, I'll secure you two, and send the women in their merry way."

"After you give them a way to contact you." Lucas growled suspiciously.

"Yes, calm down. I won't hurt your little baby mama." Warren rolled his eyes. He turned to the Buff-bot. "Keep them here, do whatever you have to do. If I'm I don't come back in five minutes, or I scream for help… kill them."

He pointed at the door, "through there, my panic room should hold you for a while. It can keep out demons and all magic, it shouldn't have to big of a problem with you two dorks." The men entered the room and Lucas quickly saw it was filled with nearly as many computers as the one they just left. Beside the thick metal door, a complicated looking key pad and screen caught his attention. He hastily diverted is gaze but Warren saw it. "Hm, I was going to let you two stay in here comfortably, but I think that's a bad idea."

He pointed to a low bunk tucked under some water pipes, it's foot pressed against a wide metal set of shelves. "Xander, sit there. Lucas… on the floor," a cruel smile crossed his mouth. "In front of the bookshelf."

Warren pulled two lengths of rope from under the bed. Xander grimaced, "can I protest being tied up with your sex rope?"

"It's not for sex you perv, it's for when invocations go wrong." Warren snapped, "they… got in before I shut the door once, and I like to be prepared to get them under control if need be."

"Yeah, right." Xander scoffed.

Warren didn't bother answering but grabbed Xander's wrists, roughly lashing them to the pipe. "Comfy?"

"Not really."

"Good." He crossed to Lucas and regarded him for a while. "Now, I'm not one for torture, so I'll try to be gentle." Lucas glared at him, refusing to respond. "Take off the sling."

"He can't." Xander tried to argue. "His shoulder was pulled out of the socket by your damn robot."

Warren raised an eyebrow and laughed. "She did that? Good girl." He looked back down at Lucas. "Take off the sling and spread your arms out. I don't want you to be able to touch anything in here. I think this will convince you to not try and escape."

After taking a deep breath, and closing his eyes, Lucas obeyed. His face paled from the pain but he stayed silent, biting down hard on his tongue. He refused to show how much it hurt him to follow the order. After making sure he was as comfortable as he could get, he stretched out his arms, a small moan escaping his lips. Lucas forced himself to look Warren dead in the eye as he was tied up. "Now send them home," he rasped.

"Oh, they're safer already." Warren snickered, and left the room, swinging door closed with a resounding bang.

The girls hastily stopped talking when Warren walked back into the main area. "I want to make sure you aren't doing something terrible to them." Jayde said forcefully, standing and facing him.

"They're fine, there's even a bed in there. And it's your turn now." He used the gun to point to another doorway.

"What's in there? You said we could go free." Dawn asked, staring at the opening that clearly did not lead outside.

"I say a lot of things." Warren replied coldly. "In."

Once inside the cramped room, the girls saw it was a supply closet. Crates and boxed labeled as food stuffs were stacked on shelves, along with computer parts, and bedding. A quick survey told them there were no weapons of any kind, however. Warren stood in the door, "you could be fine in here for a few days... Or weeks, it'll all depend on how quickly Lucas works with me."

"You're kind of an asshat, you know that, right?" Jayde stared him down, challenging him.

Warren's face darkened and he slammed the door, cursing. "Asshat?" Dawn asked laughing. "Why did you call him that?"

"Oh... yeah, um don't repeat that." Jayde tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind an ear and started searching the room. "It made him mad, and now he left us alone. And, he didn't make us send an email or anything to tell Lucas we were ok. Hopefully it bought us a few hours."

"Was there a reason to that? I thought it was weird."

"Yeah, kind of," Jayde said with a sigh. "I thought if I was able to email him, Willow might be able to put a Trojan in and we could mess up his computers. But I guess that's out the window."

Dawn nodded, "so what do we do first?"

"I don't see any surveillance equipment, I doubt he would set it up in here." She shrugged and pulled the dagger hidden in her belt. "I say we start looking through the computer stuff and see if there is anything we can use." Jayde grinned, as she slit open a box, "WWLD."

"WWLD?"

"Yeah, what would Lucas do?"

Dawn laughed, "ok what would Lucas do?"

"Cause trouble."

"I can do that."

"Me too."

Dawn sat on a low crate, and started digging through another one. "So, is what Xander said true? Or was he just trying to keep you safe?" Jayde looked at her questioningly. "I know it's probably none of my business... I just wanna know if you're going to start puking on me or passing out."

"Oh!" Jayde admitted sheepishly, "I forgot..."

"So you aren't?"

Jayde hesitated, "I'm not sure, it's possible. Willow was going to get me a test the day Lucas got attacked... But we've kind of had other things happening."

"Do you think it could have been hurt when the Buffy-bot broke your ribs?" Dawn asked anxiously.

Jayde shook her head, "they're only cracked, and it was pretty high up. And If I am pregnant..." she winced at the word, "it's early enough that it's pretty protected in there."

"So... Do you want it?" Dawn blushed as soon as the words left her mouth. "I'm sorry, that's really personal."

Jayde shook her head, "no that's fine." She sighed deeply. "I can't pretend the timing is pretty bad..."

"Because of your age? Or because you're being held hostage in another time?" Dawn smirked.

"Both, I guess," Jayde chuckled. She returned to searching through the boxes. "I'll have to figure that all out when I find out if I actually am..." After popping the top of a plastic storage container, she grinned.

"This could help us..." She tilted the box to show Dawn and received a smile back.

"You think that could cause enough trouble?"

"Oh yeah..."


	14. Chapter 14

"I'm going to... When we find them they'll wish... All four of them!" Willow raged as she paced the living room. The others looked on, a little terrified to see her fury. "I know, I'll tie them all up and force them to watch Barney for three straight days! Maybe they'll stop doing stupid things then!"

Spike blanched, "that's rather harsh. I wouldn't even do that to Angel."

"I expect this out of Xander," she continued, "but all four of them? They don't leave us any clue as to where they went, they just chase after a malfunctioning robot..."

"Sweetie?" Tara approached carefully, carrying a small bag. "I have everything for the locator spell ready."

Willow nodded shortly, "you should probably do it... I may blast them or something. I'm beyond pissed right now"

"We noticed." Spike said dryly, looking through the weapons chest. "At they took something to fight with."

Willow snorted and glared at him, "Jayde shouldn't be fighting anything in her condition."

"Condition? What condition?" Tim stared at her.

"Oh... I guess I shouldn't have said that..." She grimaced, "we... Jayde and I, think she's pregnant..."

Tim's jaw dropped, "pregnant?! How?!"

"The normal way, I'd imagine." Spike smirked at him. He sprawled on the couch and laughed at Tim's blush.

"But... but they're too young..." Tim sputtered in shock.

Spike scoffed at him. "You've been this much of a git you're whole life, haven't you?"

The lieutenant spun to glare at him, frustrated at his flippant attitude. "And what did you do to get girls when you were sixteen? Write terrible poetry about how beautiful their veins were?"

Spike gaped back at him in surprise. "I… I… But with mother… you wouldn't understand." He struggled to regain his casual demeanor, "your hair is stupid."

"Now," Tim turned back to the witches, satisfied he taken the advantage in the spat. "Why don't we see if we can find them?"

Tara nodded, wearing a small smile after watching the exchange. "I'll start right away." She kneeled on the floor with the bag and pulled out a thick black candle and a shirt they recognized as Xander's. After lighting the candle, Tara closed her eyes and held Xander's shirt tightly in her hand. "Lord and Lady, show me the one who is lost." After a few seconds of silence, she tightened her face and repeated the incitation louder. When there was still no change, she sat back on her heels and looked at Willow worriedly.

"What's wrong?" Tim asked, catching the expression.

"S… Something is blocking me."

Willow knelt across from her and took Tara's free hand. They both clutched the shirt and spoke in unison. "Lord and Lady, show us the one who is lost." Willow's commanding voice carried over the room, but nothing happened again.

"Do you think Xander could be doing it? If he knows you're mad at him…" Tim asked, not wanting to think of another reason.

Willow sighed, "I doubt it, if we aren't guiding him, most of his magic is… accidental."

"So we have to assume something with bad intent is doing it. Does Warren use magic?"

Tara nodded, "yes, but rarely as far as we know. He's mostly computers."

"I… um…" Tim started uncomfortably, "would I be able to help… with the … uh… spell?"

"I don't think it will help." Tara said, when she saw the hurt expression flicker across Tim's face, she shook her head. "No, I'm sorry… not like that. Locator spells are pretty simple, too much power and we could give ourselves away."

"What do you mean? Do we care if Warren or whoever knows?"

Tara hesitated, "it's hard to explain… but the reason locator spells normally work so well is because they are so simple. It isn't something most people wouldn't bother protecting against. If he's blocked us for such a small spell, we don't want him to know we're close at all. He may have some kind of safeguard set up. If… if we break through… it could do something to everyone who's with him."

She turned to Willow, who had her eyes pressed tightly closed and started muttering under her breath. Tara gasped and lurched when her hand was seized again. The room heard the crackle of energy surge into the smaller witch. When she opened her eyes again, Willow looked dazed. "It's passive, something's in place to keep everything out. I can probe the edges, and I feel them there, but I don't know where they are."

"So how do we find them?" Tim asked, trying not to lose hope. "We went to every address on we had for Warren and nothing was there."

Willow smiled at him, "I tagged them."

"Tagged? What do you mean?"

"If they get out of the protection or something drastic changes, I'll know. I just have to search for them and they'll be shown to me."

Tim's eyes widened and then narrowed, "drastic? Like what?"

Willow looked away for a few moments. "If someone is badly hurt or…"

"Or they die." Tim finished for her, she nodded weakly. "Great, Captain Bridger is going to kill me. First Lucas is going to be a dad, and now we may only be able to figure out where they are if someone dies."

"Well…" Willow chewed her lip, "I should be able to do something before they die… I'll know if they're in a lot of pain…" she dropped her eyes, unable to finish the thought.

Tim stared at her trying to comprehend, when it hit him, he lost his breath and had to sit. "So instead of waiting for them to die, we just have to wait for them to be tortured." He rubbed a hand across his face, "will that happen?"

"I don't know, I know Warren isn't going to win a man of the year award, but I don't know if he'd do something like that." Willow's face darkened, "of course, I thought they'd be safe with Stark because she was a human…"

They were lost in their own thoughts until Spike distracted them with a laugh. "I don't know why you are freaked out. We'll finally get to find out if Xander can drive someone, other than me, to commit a heinous act. We should be taking bets."

Tim and Willow rose as one, glowering at the vampire. "You think it's funny that some kids may have to survive something like that?" Tim spat, clenching his fists.

Willow, placed a hand on his arm trying to calm the irate man. "Spike, you're an asshole most of the time, but… Dawn is with them." Spike opened his mouth to snarl back, but had lost his cocky attitude. Instead, he stood and stormed from the house, slamming the door as he went.

"Do we care if he goes poof?" Tara asked quietly, "or should we go get him?"

"Right now, I think he'd rather go poof, and I rather not remember him." Willow whispered angrily.

* * *

"Have I mentioned I'm sorry for letting the hacker thing slip?" Xander asked, trying to look around the corner of the bookshelf at Lucas.

"Six or seven times."

"Oh… because I am."

"I know, Xander."

"We'll get out of this, if I have to get shot again for it to happen, it's fine."

"Xander…"

"I mean, I've been cannon fodder before, I'm ok doing it again… Well, not ok, but I'll deal."

"Xander…"

"What else can I do?"

"Please shut up."

"Oh… sorry."

Lucas sighed and tried to rest his arm on the shelf to relieve some of the pressure on his shoulder. "I just have a lot going through my head right now, you're not helping."

"The baby stuff?"

"That's part of it." Lucas answered with a hard edge to his voice.

Xander stared at the floor sadly, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before... I only found out the day Buffy-boy tried to kill you."

Lucas exhaled loudly, "could you... just please... stop?"

"Ok..." Xander slumped in his restraints and shut his mouth tightly

Several minutes later, he jumped when he heard the loud thump beside him. He stretched his arms as far as he could to look at Lucas. To his shock, the blonde teen had his eyes squeezed closed and slammed the back of his head against the bookcase, and was about to do it again.

When Lucas opened his eyes and looked at Xander, he was further shocked to see the tears swimming there. "Oh… hey… don't do that. I'm… um sure Jayde and Dawn are with Willow already. They'll be ok."

"No…"

"Oh, are you worried about Warren torturing us? I don't think he will. Kidnapping is one thing..."

"Xander…"

"He doesn't seem to be the type of person who would torture someone."

"Xander…"

"Unless we push him, I guess."

"Xander…" Lucas wrinkled his face, and started blinking hard.

Xander kept on, "But even if he does… I mean, Stark didn't break you, you screamed a lot… but she didn't break you."

"Xander…" Lucas voice rose as he glared at him.

"If I have to throw myself on a real sword, I won't let him do that to you."

"XANDER!"

"What?"

"My nose itches, and I can't sneeze because I'm afraid my shoulder will get popped out again."

"Oh… so you're not freaking out about being tortured?"

"Well, now I am." Lucas groaned, and closed his eyes again.


	15. Chapter 15

"So, how do we light them?" Dawn asked, looking down at the pinkish fuel inside the five Sterno pots.

Jayde carefully spread them out on the plastic lid she pulled off of a large storage container. "It should just take a few sparks, this stuff lights really easily." She dipped the tip of her dagger in one of the pots, and wiped some of the gel on a piece of blanket she cut off. "It'll be a lot safer if we have a wick to do this," she explained, "and faster."

Jayde handed Dawn half of blanket, and wrapped the rest around her own face. "What's that for?"

She pointed at the ceiling, "I know that water isn't going to come out of that, and the chemical fire suppression systems can mess with your breathing." She hesitated, looking over her tools. "And if this gets out of control, it's similar to a military issue blanket, they're fire resistant. It should protect us until we can put it out."

Dawn stared at the partial blanket in her hand, and scrap Jayde had cut for a wick. "Uhhh... So how is that gonna work?"

"Oh, sorry, I guess not everyone went to survival camps." She laughed lightly. "I'm banking on the fabric not burning, only the fuel will."

"Like a torch... That you're holding in your hand..."

Jayde laughed again, "yeah, don't try this at home kids." Holding the dagger in one hand, she started to drag it over the surface of the cement blocks of the wall. Every stroke produced a shower of sparks. A few landed on her hand, and she tried to keep it steady, biting her lip and holding the fuel close. Finally, she saw a light blue flame race across the fabric.

"Got it!" Jayde yelled excitedly. She carefully pressed it into each can and left it on the floor. After climbing the shelf, Dawn passed the lid of cans to her.

"How long will it take?" Dawn asked, watching her precariously hanging from the top level with one leg wrapped around a support railing.

Jayde pushed the fires closer to the ceiling, "hopefully not very long. You should probably get my knife and keep it ready in case we have to fight our way out."

Dawn obeyed, but stared at the blade for a long moment. "If... if we have to fight the Buffy-bot, I don't know if I can really hurt her." She swallowed, "I couldn't even react when she had you... I'm sorry."

"We'll figure out how, don't worry about it." Jayde answered, not looking her in the eye.

* * *

Lucas hadn't spoken for quite a while, breathing deeply with his eyes closed, leaning his head against the shelf. Xander watched him anxiously, trying to decide if talking to him would make it worse. After watching the steady rise and fall of his chest, Xander realized what was happening and bit back a laugh. "He's sleeping, how is he freaking sleeping?" He whispered, shaking his head.

Xander settled back alongside the wall, trying to get himself comfortable. He didn't think he'd be able to sleep but since they had no idea when or if Warren would coming back, there was no sense in being on constant alert. Just as he closed his eyes, Xander heard a click above him. Looking up in confusion, he whipped his head to side just in time to keep from being blinded by the foam raining down from the ceiling.

Lucas jerked awake and yelped in surprise and in pain. "What's going on? What is this crap?"

"Well, the optimistic me thinks Willow may have hacked into Warren's computer system and is trying to get us out." Xander answered, still trying to keep the chemicals from his face.

"And what does the realistic you think?"

"The building's on fire."

Lucas pulled on his restraints, his face going white as his shoulder protested the treatment. "Damn it, can you get free at all?"

"No," Xander shook his head, straining on his ropes. He glanced up when he heard computerized beep from the door. The screen started to blink in red 'emergency override engaged.' "Hey! The door is open!"

Lucas sighed, "great, but we're tied to the other side of the room."

"Yeah… but the door's open at least."

The door swung open, and they both cringed slightly, expecting to see Warren. Instead, Dawn and Jayde were standing there, holding the fabric to their faces. "Wanna get out of here?" Dawn asked, "or are you guys bonding?"

"How did you get back in?" Xander asked, trying to run to them in his excitement. The ropes pulled him back and he stumbled against the bed. "Where's Warren?"

Jayde rolled her eyes at his actions and went to cut Lucas free. "Are you ok?" She asked quietly.

He eased his arm back to his chest, wincing as he did so. "Been better." Lucas jerked his head up, "what about you? What about the uh… baby?"

"We'll talk about that later. Come on, we have to get out of here." She helped him up, but he pulled away.

"Not yet. I need to reverse the damage he did." Lucas ran out of the door into the main room. Jayde handed the dagger to Dawn and chased after him. He didn't look up at her when she came up behind him. "How did you guys get back in here?"

"Oh… well, he never actually let us go. We've been locked in another room. I activated the fire suppression systems and the door unlocked." She explained, watching him type.

Lucas raised his eyebrows at her. "Nice job," he wiped some of the foam from his hair. "nice, but messy."

She snorted at him, "I didn't have anyone in stuck the computer who could help. I had to improvise."

"Good thing for us, I had no idea how we were going to get out of there." Lucas turned to her, "I'm going to turn off the sprinkler first, before we all grow a second head. But, I want you to get out of here. I don't like you being around this chemical, even if you weren't…"

Jayde held up her hand to silence him. "I'm not leaving without you."

He sighed before going back to the computer. "This could take a while since I can't type as well as normal. You're annoyingly stubborn, you know."

"So are you." She could see him smile as he studied the figures in front of him.

"How can we help?" Xander asked, coming out of the room, closely followed by Dawn.

Lucas didn't turn to face them, but looked up as the chemical stopped raining down. "I'll need some time here and a laptop. I can change the code on the door, but he'll probably be able to override it. Find something to barricade it."

"On it." Xander reported, crossing to the door, and staring at it. "Um, how? It opens out."

After fashioning her blanket half into a makeshift sling for Lucas, Jayde pulled a laptop from one of the desks next to him. "Get one of the ropes and tie the knob to one of the desks. He won't be able to drag it through."

Xander nodded thoughtfully, "you're pretty good at this, you guys should stick around for a while when this is all done. Teach a class or something. The whole town will show up."

"Then you'd be out of a job." She laughed, handing the computer to Lucas.

Xander shrugged, "it doesn't really pay that well."

Dawn rolled her eyes, and went to stand behind Lucas and Jayde. "What are you doing?"

"I'm locking him out of his system. I don't have time to design a full virus, but this should slow him down." He plugged in the laptop, "and I'm downloading as much of his data as I can get. If we can figure out what he did, and how, I should be able to fix it."

"So does that mean we can leave soon?" Xander asked as he finished tying an intricate knot from the door to the desk. "But I made it all pretty looking…" he pouted slightly at the design.

"You can stay if you really want." Dawn snorted, "I'd rather go back to the house."

Xander sighed sadly, "I wonder what it's like to have a girl be nice to me."

"Tim said you had a girlfriend, she'll be back." Jayde reminded him.

"Oh yeah!" His face lit up, "I bet she makes cookies for me, and is really supportive and… and… ok, I don't believe any of that." He sighed again and sat to watch Lucas work.

"Nearly done," the blonde reported after a few minutes. The laptop beeped in confirmation, and Lucas quickly unplugged it. "Alright, let's get out of here." He clicked a button and all of the screens in the room went black. "I really don't want to be around when Warren finds out he can't play with his computer anymore."

Jayde plucked the laptop from his fumbling grasp, ignoring his scowl, and slid it into a backpack she pulled from the storage closet. "Last thing we need is to drop this running from something out there." She told him pointedly.

Dawn deftly sliced the rope and started to push the door open. It only was half way open when it stopped short. "Hey, there's something in front of it." She angled her body to look out, and jerked back in surprise, pulling the door closed. "It's the Buffy-bot, she's just standing there. Warren must have told her to guard us. What do we do?"

* * *

**Author's Note: Seriously, don't try any of this at home. Or work, hanging from shelves will get you yelled at... **

**How are we all doing out there? It's been pretty quiet, not actually begging for reviews, just wondering what people think. **


	16. Chapter 16

"Dawn!" Willow gasped, dropping the glass she was drinking from, and letting it shatter on the floor.

Tara looked her at with frightened eyes. "Is she... Did... did something..." she couldn't bring herself to say the words.

Willow shook her head, "No, I think she's ok. I just got a burst of contact with her. She was really happy for an instant, then scared... and sad."

"Can you still feel her?" Tim asked, setting aside the laptop he had be pouring over. "Or anyone else?"

"No, she's gone." They stared at her apprehensively. "I don't think she was hurt or anything... She's just gone again."

Tara nodded and tried to smile supportively. "Maybe they found a way out and just couldn't do it yet."

"What about the others?" Tim asked quietly.

Willow closed her eyes and concentrated. "I'm getting some small flickers from the four of… Oh… just four…" She paused as the thought sunk in, "that's a plus I guess."

The three of them sat silently. "Unless it means someone isn't with them… or something happened to the baby." Tim whispered, not willing to see the possible good side. He cleared his throat, "what are the uh… flickers telling you?"

"A lot of frustration, and annoyance, fear and... pain." She swallowed and opened her eyes again. She saw the panic on Tim's face, and tried to hide her own. "Not a lot of pain, it could just be from Lucas' shoulder."

He nodded, but didn't look convinced. "Why are you getting this now? You couldn't um... see anything before."

She shrugged, "I'm not really sure. If the magic barrier is physical, it may have be damaged in some way. If it's something Warren is doing with his own power, he could be distracted or just tired."

"Do you think he's strong enough to do it himself? A spell like that takes a lot of power." Tara asked, glancing at the computer in front if Tim. "We've never heard of him do something with magic that was so big."

"What about a salt circle?" Tim interrupted Willow before she could answer. Both witches gaped at him in surprise. "I... uh... read one of you books when I couldn't sleep." He admitted sheepishly. "Sorry... I... I should have asked."

Willow waved away his apology. "No, you're right. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. Even if Warren didn't do it himself, a lot if the buildings in Sunnydale where even built with protections like that. They mix it in with the drywall or cement. I think it actually raises the property values around here."

Tim perked up when he heard the information. "Is there any way we could find out which buildings have that? Is there some kind of database on it?"

"Yes!" Willow said jumping up suddenly. "Xander found some blue prints at one of his construction jobs a few months ago. They've been sitting at the magic shop since Giles left. We weren't sure what to do with them."

Tim closed the laptop, picking it up and stood, as excited as Willow. "Let's go, it's nearly dark. Spike can meet us there... if he's done having his conniption."

She smiled at him fondly, "I think I forgot how much I love the way you speak." He blushed and looked away, "it's cute."

"Cute? I... I... um..." Tim stammered, blushing deeper.

Tara took her girlfriend's hand admonishingly. "Come on, you're embarrassing the poor man."

He smiled his thanks, and with his head still bowed, walked to the weapons chest. After he pulled out a large and satisfyingly terrifying morning star, he finally looked at them. "I've been wanting an excuse to try this out." A threatening gleam showed in his eye, "and I'm sick of sitting around waiting for them to get hurt. Who's ready to kick some faq'haa?"

* * *

"What do we do?" Dawn asked again in a whisper. She turned her frightened face back to the three in the room.

Jayde rushed over to retie the door and guided the shaken girl away from it. "You won't have to fight her." She said in a hushed voice, looking deep in her eyes. "We'll deal with it."

"So what's your plan?" Xander asked Lucas.

He sighed, "I'm not sure it's a good idea to discuss that when we're still in the bad guy's lair. I don't even know what kind of surveillance equipment he has set up. He might even be watching us right now."

"Does that mean you don't have a plan?"

"Yeah... Pretty much." Lucas admitted with an apologetic smile.

"Crap."

"What about sending a message to Willow? An email or something?" Dawn asked, pulling away from Jayde and trying to control her fear.

Lucas nodded and started the computer systems again. "I can do it, but she'd have to be using her computer to get it. You guys really need smart phones."

Jayde chuckled, "yeah how do you live without being contracted to the 'nex all the time? It's weird."

After Xander provided the proper address, Lucas started typing a quick message. "Ok," he settled back in the chair and carefully adjusted his arm. "I'll see what else I can..." He paused and turned to the door. "I think someone is trying to get in."

The scraping outside the entryway grew louder, followed by cursing. "In the panic room!" Jayde ordered, trying to keep her voice low.

The door opened a few inches and the already frayed rope started to unwind. Dawn was running to it, reaching to keep it together, when a shot rang out. She screamed, clutching her face as streams of blood ran through her fingers.

* * *

Tim frowned at the blue prints scattered around them. "None of these places have Warren's name on them. Could we be wrong about who's doing this?"

"I don't think so, and just because he's using it, doesn't mean he owns it." Willow pointed out. "We just have to find a connection."

"What's wrong?" Tara asked, after seeing Tim pause and study one of the papers for long while.

He glanced up at them, holding the sheet up. "Was this place on the list of addresses we had before?"

"Yeah, we checked it out. It hadn't been used for years. And I didn't get a sense of anyone being…" Willow trailed off as the realization hit her.

"Because your magic was being blocked." Tim finished for her. He tapped the name on the ownership deed. "Does this sound familiar to you? I know it, but can't place it."

Tara leaned in to read it, "Russell Kerchum… never heard of him."

"I have," Willow volunteered. "He graduated with a doctorate crazy young and is teaching at Harvard right now. I read about him when I was checking out schools." She blushed at their surprised expressions. "The work he's done on genetic engineering is really amazing."

"Yes!" Tim exclaimed, "that's how I've heard of him. About ten years ago, our time, he had some kind of break down and went after the dean. Something about bugs being the key to cold fusion, I think." Tim wrinkled his face trying to remember. "He vanished after he got away, Lucas talks about him sometimes. I guess there's a theory that he's some kind of hacker."

Willow jumped up in excitement, startling them. "It makes so much more sense now! A hacker who's a genius at genetic engineering? He must have helped Warren design that interface thing. No way that loser did it himself."

"What was that about the bugs?" Tara blinked in confusion.

"Oh..." Willow's face crumpled, "that's right...he's the Marauder..." She cringed and looked at Tim. "This is bad... this is very bad."

Tim froze, looking from one face to the other. "What is?"

"He uh... works with another person... A G.E.L.F I think you call them... and they kind of kidnap you."

He paled and swallowed nervously. "Kind of? How do they kind of kidnap me? Did I get away or something?"

"Oh... I guess it's a full kidnapping, and she... the G.E.L.F... um... made you give the ship's codes to her." Willow finished, cringing again.

Tim shook his head stubbornly, "no, I would never do that..." He scowled angrily at her. "You must be wrong."

"I... I'm sorry, Tim, but you told me about it yourself." Willow dropped her head, staring at the floor. "She tortured you... and..."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Fine... tell me about it later, maybe I can avoid it." He turned away from her, trying not to vent his frustrations on the wrong person. "So this Kerchum is working with Warren here and in the future? Or do we think Warren is just a pawn?"

"I don't know, if he was in hiding, maybe he works with Warren in the future." Tara shrugged. "Maybe that's why the interface comes from his company."

Willow snorted, "or it's some twisted memorial. The way Warren is going, I wouldn't be surprised if someone kills him in a few years or something."

* * *

**Author's Note: I'll try to get the next chapter up tomorrow for you, but no promises. Since I'm spending some time with family, I probably won't be able to type all weekend. Have a great holiday! **


	17. Chapter 17

Despite being the furthest away from her, Xander was the first to reach Dawn after she screamed. He picked her up and ran to the panic room with her in his arms. Lucas slapped the power button on the computers and followed behind Jayde after she picked up the back pack again.

Jayde feverishly piled everything she could find in front of the door as Lucas ripped open the lock screen. "This won't keep him out for long, we need to get something to defend ourselves." He took the bag from Jayde's shoulder to reprogram the lock, and looked at Xander. "Is she ok?"

Xander gently pulled Dawn's hand away from her face. A jagged gash crossed her cheek. "I think it was just some shrapnel." He tugged off his shirt and held it to the wound. "You'll be fine Dawnie, and you'll have a cool scar later." He smiled crookedly at her. "Scars are just like tattoos, but with better stories."

She glared at him over the shirt, "boys like scars, not girls." Her voice came out in a croak, but her snide comment made him laugh.

"Alright, maybe a boy will like it then." He stood, letting her take control of holding the bandage. "Is anyone trying to get in?"

Lucas shook his head and plugged into the control panel. "No, but I hear a lot very bad words coming from the other side of this door. He is not amused." He looked to Jayde, "do we have any weapons?"

"No, it's all computer junk in here, and..." she waved helplessly at the door, "I think my dagger got left behind when we ran."

"That's my fault." Dawn said morosely, "I set it down." She sighed and blinked away tears. "Maybe you should just let him have me, I'll just mess up anything you try to do anyway."

Xander sat down beside her. "Stop that, do you think for a minute Willow wouldn't skin me alive if I even thought about it?" He nudged her with his shoulder. "And who would I tease if you weren't around?" She rolled her eyes at him, but Xander could see a smile showing from under the shirt.

He stood again and stated digging. "Come on a nerd like Warren has to have something... a ray gun, a light saber... anything." He huffed, "we need something like... like...Vera..."

Lucas barked out a laugh, "that would help. Or just River..."

"Oh... River Tam... That would be..." Xander trailed off, looking wistful.

"Shiny?" Lucas offered. The boys looked at each other and laughed in unison, while the girls stared at them in confusion.

"Uh... Guys?" Jayde questioned.

Lucas shook his head, "there's a show I'll need you to watch when we get back home."

Xander raised his eyebrows, "so that means it's still around? Awesome!"

"Oh... Well I have some good news and some very bad news on that."

"Guys!" Jayde scolded, "talk about your nerd stuff later."

They nodded meekly, "worse than Zoè." Lucas muttered, causing them to dissolve into laugher again.

They went quiet when the muffled curses and threats came closer. "Wow, he's really mad. I don't know what half those words are." Xander said dryly. He cocked an ear towards the door, "anyone know what smegma is? And why we have it on our breath?"

Three oldest people in room only looked confused, while Dawn started to giggle hysterically. "I do, I learned about it in health class. But I am _so_ not explaining it."

They eyed her, each debating pushing for an answer, but the room plugged into darkness before they could voice anything. "He's doing a hard reset of the system" Lucas announced. "I was really hoping he wouldn't think of that so fast."

"So, what do we do?" Jayde asked as the dim emergency lights flickered on.

Lucas started typing on the laptop, "I'll try to keep him out, but since he designed the system, he'll probably be able to override everything I do. I can only buy us time." He looked around desperately for something that would help them, but came up empty. "Um... Sit in front of the door."

Xander and Jayde complied, stretching their legs to prop them against the shelving unit. "Can I help?" Dawn asked, standing.

"You weigh like two pounds." Xander protested, "and you're injured."

She snorted, "so is Jayde, and she's pregnant."

Lucas jerked in surprise when heard her. "Oh... I keep forgetting." He glanced back at Jayde. "How are you feeling?"

She sighed, "I'm fine, and I don't even..."

Jayde was interrupted by the angry voice outside the door. "You can't just stay in there forever."

"Sure we can!" Xander yelled back. "We're having a nice little camp out, and you're not invited!"

Dawn groaned and aimed a kick at Xander's leg. "How about we don't taunt the armed mad man holding us hostage?"

"No, keep going." Lucas injected, "he isn't trying to boot me off the system. The more he's distracted, the better for us. And it'll give Willow a chance to get our message."

Dawn grinned, "well ok then, it's my turn." She walked to the door and started to yell. "Hey asshat! Does it piss you off that some damn kids are messing up everything for you?"

The others stared at her in shock. "Since when do you talk like that?" Xander gasped. "And what's an asshat?"

Jayde shook her head laughing, "I told you not to repeat that. I'm going to get yelled at."

A computerized beep brought their attention to the laptop screen. "He just activated some kind of security system." Lucas informed them, typing quickly. "Oh... um, cover your mouth with your shirts or something." He awkwardly pulled his collar up with a pained grunt and continued working. "This is going to get much worse before it gets better."

"Tear gas?" Jayde asked, already cringing.

She received a short nod from Lucas. "I think so."

Xander looked down at his bare chest helplessly before Dawn threw the bloody shirt at him. The wound was still oozing, but she ignored it. They all held their breath when the hiss came from the vents by their feet. The white gas quickly rose around them, and Jayde and Xander jumped up from sitting on the ground to gain extra time before they were forced to breathe the chemical.

"Can't you stop it?" Xander asked tensely.

"I'm trying," Lucas answered in frustration. "I'm kinda fettered here." He angrily gestured with his injured arm holding his shirt to his mouth. He huffed, "screw it." Lucas dropped the shirt and with a grunt, started typing with both hands. The gas lapped at his knees and particles started his eyes watering.

Xander pushed Jayde and Dawn to stand on the cot. "Hold your breath if it gets close." He ordered, blinking away tears. They nodded, deciding not to argue for once. He turned back to Lucas, "how can I help?"

The blonde only shook his head. "Join them, if I pass out, you'll need to keep the door closed without me. Just… keep them safe." He finished softly before starting to cough.

"I'm not going to just sit back and wait for you to hit the floor." Xander argued angrily. He pressed himself as close to the door as he could with the barrier Jayde had set up. "Hey! Stop the freaking gas! We have a pregnant girl in here!" He slammed on the door with his fist.

The white gas started to thin and then was swept away by air blowing from the vents. "Did you do that?" Xander asked, "or did I appeal to his sense of reason?"

Lucas shook his head, "I can barely see what I'm doing. And I'm not so sure he has a sense of reason left." He wiped at his blotchy face. "Maybe he just ran out."

A loud voice on the other side of the wall answered his question. "I have plenty more. I'm just giving you a chance. Do you know what this stuff can do to a pregnant woman? I'm haven't really looked into it, but I'm sure it isn't good." Lucas looked to Jayde, chewing his lip in concern and rage. She stared at him evenly, but he could see fear in her eyes. "And even if it doesn't do anything to a baby, she probably shouldn't be coughing with a broken rib."

"Now what?" Dawn whispered.

Warren continued, "it doesn't matter if you whisper little girl, I can see and hear you just fine. And Lucas, you aren't going to get very far in my program. I don't care how good you are."

Lucas slammed the laptop closed. "He's right. If I had the time, I could do it, but I'm completely unfamiliar with his system. If this was the SeaQuest or something designed in our time, I'd be done all ready."

"Come out and we can have a nice talk. I even brought some food for you." Warren's voice called from much closer.

The group searched each other's faces, trying to weigh their options. "Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly." Dawn muttered. "We are all aware this is a trap, right?"

Xander sighed, "of course it is." He raised his voice. "Are you going to shoot at us again if we come out? Because then we aren't coming out."

"That will depend on you." Was the chilling answer.

* * *

**Author's Note: Ok, everyone go watch Firefly now! It awesome, I swear. **


	18. Chapter 18

Lucas set the small computer on the floor, and sighed with his eyes closed. After the brief pause, he started pulling the crates away from the door, one by one. Jayde hurried to his side. "Do you have a plan?"

"Yeah," he answered quietly, not looking at her. "Just... just do what I say when we're out there."

"Lucas?" She whispered, grasping at his arm. "What are you..."

"Please..." He interrupted her. When he looked up, Jayde was amazed by the blazing intensity in his blue eyes. "It's the only way. Promise me."

She nodded, her breath catching in her throat as flickers of panic threatened. "Ok, I promise... But be careful."

Lucas smirked back at her, "always. And I have kid to raise now."

"But I might..."

She was cut off by Warren, "yeah yeah stop being all heartwarming. Just get your asses out here!"

"You won't have to deal with him much longer" Lucas muttered under his breath.

Jayde whipped her head around to stare at him, but he was busy clearing the entry way. With a frustrated and defeated sigh, she helped him. Within seconds, he reached for the doorknob.

"So, do we rush him or something?" Xander asked, directly behind them.

"No, you three aren't going to do anything that might get you hurt." Lucas admonished, "just let me do what needs to be done."

"And that would be?" Xander asked, glaring at the back of the blonde head.

Lucas didn't answer, instead, he pulled open the door and raised his hands. Warren was leaning against the computer desk at the other side of the room, his gun lazily pointed at them. "Out, all of you."

They obeyed and Lucas led them in a line against the farthest wall way from Warren and his gun. "Now," the dark haired man sneered, "let's try this again. I want..."

"No." Lucas stopped him, stepping forward. His voice was quiet but so forceful, Warren snapped his mouth closed. "This is what is going to happen. You are going to let the three of them go. I will save your ass and then you will let me go."

Warren glared at him. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't. You can cuff me to the desk if you feel it's necessary, but that's the only way this will happen." Lucas stated simply with a shrug.

Jayde momentarily stopped breathing. "You... You can't."

He offered a sad smile, "don't forget, you promised." She blinked back tears that had nothing to do with the gas. After swallowing, she nodded. Lucas looked at Warren again. "Let them go." He crossed his arms, only allowing a small twitch to show how the defiant action pained him.

Warren surveyed the group, weighing his options. "Ok," he agreed. "But if anyone tries to break in, or stop us… deal's off. You die." He said coldly, pointing his pistol at Lucas.

"They won't." Lucas assured him.

Xander stepped forward shaking his head. "No, Lucas don't do this. I… I can't leave you like this."

"This is my turn." Lucas told him with a cockeyed grin. "From what you've told me about last time, with the monsters, I followed your lead. This is computers, now I know what I'm doing."

He crossed to Jayde and hugged her gently, "I'll be ok, just stay safe." She nodded again, not trusting her voice.

Warren pressed a button on the computer and the door clicked open. Lucas walked away and sat at the desk without being told. They took one last look at the back of his head before exiting into the cool early morning light.

"What needs to be fixed?" Lucas asked in a bored tone. In reality, he was desperately trying to stay calm. He knew this had the strong possibility of blowing up in his face. If he couldn't fix the problem, or Warren decided to go back on their deal, there was nothing he could do to stop it.

To his surprise, Warren slumped into the seat next to him. "I don't even know. I took a few people out of the timeline and everything went crazy. Now I can't stop it."

"Ok, we can start with them. Do you have a list or something?"

Warren pulled up a file with four names listed. Lucas blinked in shock, "only four people? How is that possible?"

"Um… I think the system started doing it on it's own. But it isn't programmed to do anything like that. I've run scans and done everything short of ripping it apart." He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "All I know is that something isn't working right." Warren fixed Lucas with an almost pleading expression. "I don't know how to stop this."

Lucas ground his teeth together in annoyance. "Is where you tell me some one is making you do all this, and you're actually just a victim? Because I'm getting pretty sick of that."

"What? No, there's someone who has helped me a bunch of times, but no one is making me do anything." Warren looked at him oddly. "Why?"

"No reason." Lucas muttered, bringing up files on each person, and studying them.

After watching him work for a few minutes, Warren broke the silence again. "Are you actually from the future?"

"Yup."

"How far away?"

"About fifteen years."

"Oh… So have you heard of me? Do I invent anything cool? I've been working on a few things." Warren asked, sounding excited.

Lucas sighed and stopped typing. "Yeah, one thing." He pushed up his shaggy bangs. "And it really messed up my day."

"What… what is that from?" Warren asked, staring at the small scars that were still healing.

"Your neural interface, I don't think you designed it very well."

Warren shook his head. "I don't even own it anymore. I could make it in theory, but the technology hasn't caught up yet. I sold it someone. He's actually the one who helped me set this up." He made a general wave to the equipment around him.

"You sold it? To who?"

"Dr. Russell Kerchum, have you heard of him?" Warren offered with a shrug. "His hacker name is Marauder."

Lucas jaw dropped, "so… You know him? The Marauder?" He immediately forgot the gravity of the situation he was in. "Is there anyway, anyway at all, I can met him?"

"Why?"

"He's kind of a hero of mine. I mean… I don't know all the stuff he did after he disappeared, but he's still pretty amazing." Lucas explained animatedly.

Warren looked at him suspiciously, "I'll try to contact him after we're done here."

"Oh, I already found the problem. I'll just have to work around it." Lucas returned to the screens in front of him.

"What was it?"

Lucas snorted, "this guy you deleted." He pointed to the profile he pulled up. "He pretty much designed half of the circuits in the computer you're using. No wonder it went haywire." Lucas narrowed his eyes, "why did you do it?"

Warren had to grace to look sheepish. "He was a rival… I um… he's better with technology than me."

"So you just got rid of him? That's a great way to deal with it."

"Hey!" Warren started angrily, "I could have just killed him… but… but I'm not a murderer."

Lucas eyed the gun, held loosely in his hand, "so you weren't planning to use that?"

"Oh…" He tightened his grip. "If I have to, I will. So… so, just fix it!" Warren jumped up and started to pace the room.

Lucas turned back to the screens, his established rapport seemed to have disintegrated in moments. "I'm trying, but it'll take some time. I have to bypass a lot of systems. And I'll need to know what to do to bring someone back."

"I'll take care of it when everything is working again." Warren snapped back, stopping his manic pace. "Just do your job."

Lucas clenched down on the smart ass answer that tried escape. After only a couple of minutes, he smiled triumphantly. "Only one more to fix. Most of these already had safe guards built in. I just had to activate them." He jumped slightly when he realized Warren was directly behind him, leaning over his shoulder. "I... um... want to run a scan to see how much damage there is. Once that's reversed, the people you didn't personally delete, should come back automatically."

Warren nodded distractedly and resumed pacing. "Fine, whatever."

"Dude, what is your problem? I'm helping you."

"I this is taking too long."

"I'm doing the best I can, I told you it would take time." Lucas argued heatedly.

"I don't trust those friends of your's. I want to know what they're up to." He looked at Lucas, trying to decide something. "I can't check on them when you're using the screens."

Lucas blanched, "what do you mean... check on them?"

He stopped pacing again and glared menacingly. "I..." he was cut off by a sudden alarm. Rushing to Lucas' side, he roughly shoved him out of the chair.

A curse of pain and anger flew from the young man's mouth when he hit the floor. "What the hell man?!"

"Shut up." Warren growled, opening a new program. An outside shot of the warehouse came on screen. There, it showed Willow holding Dawn beside the motionless Buffy-bot, while Jayde spoke to her, Tara, and Tim. Xander stood to one side looking very shell-shocked. "They're all here... I told them..." Warren was shaking in rage. He slowly raised the handgun and pointed it at Lucas. "You've run out of time."


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Note: I'll be jumping pretty quickly from one group of people to the other since things are happening at the same time. I hope it doesn't get confusing.**

* * *

Nearly the same instant they were hurried out of the door, and it slammed behind them, Dawn, Jayde, and Xander saw their friends rushing towards them. The second thing they saw was the Buffy-bot standing in front of them staring them down. The three stopped immediately.

"Do you think Warren took the time to tell her we were free to go? Or will she detain us?" Xander asked dryly. He stepped in front of the girls resolutely, and studied the robot. "Hey... uh... Master told us he needs you... inside."

She cocked her damaged head at him as he watched the other group skid to a stop. "But he told me I should stay out here. And stop anyone from getting inside or leaving."

"Right," he tried to reason with her. "That... um was before... and now..."

Dawn pushed him aside with an annoyed sigh. "Buffy, knock knock..."

The robot clapped her hands and hopped with animated glee. "Who's there?"

"Great..." Xander muttered, "now we get to hear knock knock jokes for a week."

"Would you rather hear bad jokes or be torn limb from limb?" Dawn asked with a grin.

"Is there a third choice?"

When he saw the robot distracted by the exchange, Tim ran towards it, his morning star swinging. The spiked ball met the back of the blonde head and the robot hit the ground, twitching. "Where's Lucas?" He asked, pushing away the grasping fingers with the toe of his boot.

No one could answer him for a moment. Dawn closed her eyes and turned away, a sob stuck in her throat. "Damn..." Xander whispered. "That... that was impressive. Very very scary... but impressive."

"Where is he?" Tim repeated as he was joined by Willow and Tara.

Jayde finally found her voice, but it cracked with emotion. "He... he made us leave."

"Warren made you leave? But why?" Willow asked, she wrapped Dawn in a tight hug and allowed the girl to bury her face on her shoulder. "Why keep Lucas and let you go?"

"No... Lucas made us leave." Tears started down her face. "They're in there together and... and Warren has a gun." She started to sway as she gasped for air, holding her cracked ribs.

Xander caught her before she fell. "We'll get him out. How hard could it be?" He flashed his lopsided smile at her. "Tim's gone all scary with the spiky ball of doom, he can just beat down the door."

"I'm not sure a smash and grab is a great idea, Xander." Willow told him, rolling her eyes. "We need a more subtle approach." She relinquished Dawn to Tara and carefully walked to the door. Willow rested her hands on it and closed her eyes. "The magic barrier is breaking down, what did you do it?"

"Probably the fire suppression system." Jayde explained, pulling away from Xander finally. "I um, started a small fire to release the doors."

"Yeah, that would do it." Willow responded with a laugh, "spells tend to go a little wonky when you mess up the ingredients." She gave a pointed look to Xander.

He pouted back at her. "How many times do I..."

"Anyhow," she interrupted, "I should be able to do something here." Willow placed her hands on the door and closed her eyes. Everyone watched as power radiated outward. There was a click, and she carefully opened the door to reveal an empty room.

* * *

"No... Wait..." Lucas started to scramble up from the floor, but his sudden move made Warren step closer. He carefully raised his hands and kept still. "I... I'm almost done. Just let me finish and this will all be over."

Warren seemed to waver, his eyes flicking between Lucas and the computers. After some hesitation, he nodded and stepped back. "Quickly." He snapped harshly.

Within seconds Lucas was back at his post and running the programs. "Ok, I've set it to correct the problems automatically. I... can leave and everything thing will work again." He stared at the gun hopefully.

Warren shook his head. "No. They'll come in here and destroy everything. I... I have to..." When Lucas saw his hand tighten on the pistol again, he closed his eyes, waiting for the shot. Instead, he was hauled roughly to his feet.

"What are you doing?"

Warren didn't answer, pushing him through the door of the panic room. He typed a code in on the lock screen and the bed started to move. Lucas watched in shock as what he thought was solid brick, slide up. Inside there was a dark tunnel. "In, now." Warren barked, shoving him again.

He was pushed until his face was inches from a wall. Warren seized his arms and twisted them behind his back. Lucas gasped in pain and didn't have to register that the gun was probably not pointed at him, until metal cuffs closed around his wrists.

"You don't have to do this!" He argued, but got no reply except a hand propelling him forward into the darkness. All he heard was the panel sliding closed behind them, cutting off the remaining light.

* * *

Xander ran into the room as soon as he saw no one was inside. A quick look told him the other rooms were empty as well. "How... where did they go?" He asked desperately.

"Let's see what I can find." Willow walked past him and sat at the computers. Before touching anything she watched the program that was running. "It's debugging, he must of made Lucas fix it. I... I don't think I should touch anything until it's done."

"Look at this." Tim pointed to one of the screens. "He could see us coming," he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I should have thought about that." He tossed the morning star down with a crash. "So what so we do now?"

Everyone jumped at the sudden noise, and stared at him with concern mirrored in their eyes. "We find them." Willow said, trying to sound optimistic. She turned back to computer, "think it's done." The screen displayed a message box reading: _Reconfigure complete. Reinitialize program?_

"Do we press yes or no?" Xander asked, staring at the screen.

"Yes." Willow said with confidence.

Jayde nodded, "I think so too. He was fixing it, he either found a way to shut it down or reverse the process."

"Can we be sure?" Tim started to inspect some of the files. "I could go though some of this."

Willow shook her head, "we need to find Lucas. We don't have the time to double check." She clicked the yes button while wincing, and everyone held their breath.

* * *

Lucas stumbled through the darkness ahead of Warren. "How am I supposed to see where I'm going? I'm going to kill myself, I can't even catch myself if I fall." His only answer was another shove, and he tripped, landing on his knees.

When Warren tried to pull him back up, he twisted away. "This is stupid. I have no idea where we are, I can't exactly run, and I don't plan to when you're holding a gun on me."

He heard rustling and a thin penlight pierced the darkness. "Happy?" Warren snarled, heaving him up again.

"Not particularly."

He started to walk again, but Warren grabbed his injured arm, sharply pulling him back. In the dim light, Lucas could see the fury etched on the man's face, and tried not to react to the painful jerk. "Don't you ever shut up?"

"No, it's part of my charm. At least I'm not as annoying as Xander."

Warren snorted, "true." He kept a firm hand on him. "Walk."

"I'd move better if you weren't trying to pull my arm out of the socket again." Lucas growled back, but following the order.

"You won't try anything if I'm holding on to you." Warren returned.

Lucas stopped short, "you have trust issues. I told you I would help you, and I did. I told you I wouldn't run, and I haven't. Let me go and stop tugging me along like a disobedient child."

"Fine," Warren dropped his hand and they continued walking.

"Where are we going anyhow?" Lucas asked after a few minutes. When he got no answer, he sighed in frustration. "There has to be someone out there who wants to kidnap me to just bake me cookies or something. Why do you all have to be so crabby?"

He heard Warren choke back a laugh. "We're almost there…" he paused and looked around. There was a click and his small flash light turned off, plunging them into darkness.

"What's wr…"

"Quiet. I hear someone." They held their breath listening for man or monster. After hearing nothing but their own frantic heartbeats, he turned the light back on.

"Sewer rats?" Lucas asked with a shrug.

Warren shook his head. "No, this tunnel is only connected to a few buildings, and they've been sealed off. That's why it's my escape route. I've never seen anything else down here. Animal, demon, or human." He carefully looked all around them nervously. "Come on, we should keep moving."

"You just said nothing ever gets down here." Lucas said snidely, he bit down on remarking further when he felt the hand pushing on his back again.

"It's Sunnydale, you never know what can happen."

Several minutes later Warren pulled on his arm again to stop him. "Would you stop doing that?" Lucas snapped, "it freaking hurts."

"Don't worry about it, we're here." He pointed to a metal ladder bolted to the walls of the tunnel.

Lucas looked at the ladder and sighed. "Are you at least going to uncuff me so I can climb it like a human?"

"No," Warren started, "I'll just do an adjustment." He unlocked one of the cuffs, leaving the one connected to Lucas injured arm. The empty side he connected to the bottom rung of the ladder.

"Ok… so, how is this supposed to work?"

Warren mounted the ladder, "you're staying here for a while."

"I… what? Hey! You just heard something back there! What if that something wants to eat me?" Lucas called to his retreating back.

"Use your snark, that should hold them off for a while." Warren retorted before pushing open a trap door and disappearing through it.

Lucas slumped on the floor, leaning against the wall in complete darkness. "You could have at least left me the light."

* * *

**Author's Note: Please let me know if I'm confusing you at all! **


	20. Chapter 20

"Anyone go poof? Or anti-poof?" Dawn asked, looking around the room.

The group shook their heads. "I don't think that changed any…" Xander's eyes grew wide. "Oh shit! Anya! She's gonna kill me!"

"None of you knew she existed, how can she get mad at you for that?" Tim tried to console him. "She seems pretty rational."

Xander snorted, "you didn't spend a lot of time with her…" He looked at Willow with a slightly frantic expression. "Do I call her? Or get flowers? What kind of present do you get for someone who was ripped from a timeline?"

Everyone started to laugh at his misplaced terror, "I think she's understand." Tara told him. "It was a pretty extreme situation."

"So… chocolate?"

"Yeah, that should work."

After watching the short exchange, Tim turned back to Willow. "Is your… uh… tag thing working? Do you know where Lucas is now?"

She sighed and shook her head, avoiding his and Jayde's gaze. "I'm just getting flickers again. He's mad and hurting. And… scared."

"No locations?"

"No… I'm sorry, I know he's close, and… and he's alive. But that's all I can give you."

* * *

Lucas rested his head against the wall with his eyes closed. When he heard a soft sound, they sprang open. He mentally cursed his stupidity of the action in the pitch dark. After standing as much as his restraints allowed, he called out. "Hello? Is there someone there? Xander?"

There was only silence, and he relaxed on the ground again. "My mind is playing tricks on me in here." He stretched his neck up, straining to see if light was escaping the trapdoor. Lucas heard a step again and whipped his head around to find the source. "Seriously, who is there?"

The squeak of hinges above him caused Lucas to jump. A bright light was directed downward through the trapdoor, blinding him. He heard voices, and then the door slammed again. "I guess I'm still grounded…" he muttered.

Lucas laid his head back again, trying to sleep. After a while, he realized the unnatural quiet and darkness was actually a hindrance. Without the constant sound of engines or people walking around, and with no aquatube light, he just couldn't sleep.

He rattled the cuff attached to the ladder run, feeling for any sort of weakness. "There has to be away to get out of here." He grumbled to himself.

"I'm sure talking to yourself in the dark like a git will help." A voice very close to him said.

Lucas jerked away from the voice in shock, wrenching his arm in the process. He let out an involuntary howl and a hand clamped down over his mouth. He violently tried to fight off whoever was holding him, flailing and kicking. "Would… you… just… stop!" The voice hissed in his ear. "I'm not going to bite you."

The strange statement, combined with the cockney accent finally clicked in Lucas' head and he sagged with relief. The hand was removed, "Spike?"

"Of course. Who else would be slinking around in old sewer tunnels?" There was a sharp click and a spark. The metal lighter the blonde vampire was holding lit up the area. "Other than you lot."

"You've been down here for a while haven't you?" Lucas asked blinking at the small flame. After the total darkness, even that hurt his eyes. "Why didn't you do something before scaring the crap out of me?"

Spike snorted at him. "I may have superhuman strength… and looks, but I'm not bloody Superman. If I just jumped out of a corner when he was holding the gun on you, you'd have been shot." Lucas opened his mouth to argue, "and… I could hear them walking about up there. No good showing my face only to get holy water thrown on it."

"Oh, yeah, I get that." Lucas rattled the cuff again. "So… you wanna get me out of this?"

"Are you overly fond of that arm?"

"Uh… yeah?"

"Then no. I can't break the metal… well, I probably could, but not without hurting you. And hurting you will make the chip go crazy." Spike informed him, looking annoyed.

Lucas sighed, "ok… so call Willow or something."

"No signal in the sewers, you think I spend so much time down here for the view?" He snorted and started digging in a pocket. "It's the only way I can get away from the Scooby squad for a bit. They don't let a bloke have any free time."

"So go get someone." Lucas answered, starting to get frustrated at his supposed savoir.

Spike shook his head and pulled out a cigarette. "Can't. Wonder witch told me not to leave you alone if I found you first. Not worth my hide to go against her."

"So we're just going to stare at each other for a while then?" Lucas wrinkled his noise when the ember on the cigarette flared to life. "Do you have to do that? It's disgusting."

Spike gave him a dirty look. "You smell that? What use to be in here?" Lucas nodded, "well, my sense of smell is a lot stronger than your's. If I have to stay down here, I smoke."

"Fine, whatever." Lucas mumbled under his breath. "You can't call someone, you can't leave, and you can't rip off my arm… what are you doing down here?"

Spike pointed upwards, "waiting for the other computer prat to come back with the key."

"Oh…" Lucas was somewhat stunned by the simplicity of the plan. "Will that work? You'll be able to touch him with the chip?"

"No, I won't if I don't have to, but he doesn't know what… so keep it quiet."

Lucas nodded with a snort. "Not a problem."

They didn't have to wait long, moments after they stopped talking, the trapdoor creaked open. Spike snapped the lighter closed and faded into the shadows. Lucas tried not to watch as his only chance of escape disappeared from sight.

Footsteps vibrated the ladder and Lucas scrambled out of the way to avoid being stepped on. Warren dropped down beside him, he paused and looked around suspiciously. "Who were you talking to?"

"Myself." Lucas snapped back. "I got bored sitting in the dark all alone."

"Fine, you won't have to worry about that anymore." Warren stuck a hand in pocket and pulled out a small key. Lucas stepped back to give him room and to run if Spike needed him too. A faint sound made Warren turn quickly, the key griped tightly in his fist.

Lucas cleared his throat, "you… um… said before, you had some food. Was that just made up? I haven't eaten for a while. I'd really appreciate it." He smiled, hoping that his distraction was working.

"What? Oh… yeah, um, I left it back at my lab, but I think Dr. Kerchum should have some." Warren answered, still glancing around. He bent quickly and opened the cuff. "Come on, start climbing."

Lucas tried to hedge, "Yeah… uh… just don't get pushy. I don't know how well I'll be able to climb with my arm. It's still pretty painful." He rubbed his shoulder and gave an exaggerated wince.

"Just move and st…" Warren was cut off when his body was smashed against the wall. The air in his lungs blasted out in a cough and he sunk to the floor gasping.

Spike went down on knee at nearly the same instant, clutching his head. Lucas heard a metal clang off the floor of the tunnel and turned to see the dim light reflect off the gun in Warren's hand. Before he could even open his mouth to shout, the gun raised and Warren pulled the trigger.

* * *

"So we're back at square one." Tim said bitterly, attempting to use the computer. When it started to flashing warnings at him about encrypted files, he pushed away the keyboard. when he turned away, he cringed, seeing Jayde's drawn and pale face. She and Dawn were leaning on one of the desks, leaning on each other in shared sorrow and fear.

"I wouldn't call it square one." Willow assured him. "We have more information on Warren and …well… we know these three are safe at least."

Xander groaned and pushed away from the wall he was leaning on. "Yeah, great. We're all here having an awesome party. Meanwhile, we have no idea how to use this computer, and we have no idea where Lucas is."

"What do you want me to do?" Willow hissed back. "If I touch the computer, everything might just go away. Do you want to be responsible for erasing all of human kind? Because I don't."

"Fine," he said sulkily, "then how do we find Lucas? We don't need a computer for that."

Willow's face switched from angry to apologetic when she heard the fear in his voice. "I'm sorry, Xander, I just don't know. We could look at the blue prints again and try to find another place Warren would take him… but that might take hours."

He started to pace around them room. "There's no way out… could… could he have made like… a portal or something? Jumped to another dimension?"

"No… I really don't think he's strong enough for that." Willow said softly. "But if Dr. Kerchum is helping him, he may have other resources."

"What kind of resources are you talking about?" Time inquired worriedly. "What could he have?"

She didn't answer immediately and Tara chimed in. "Wait, Xander, you said a portal… maybe… Willow, can you call Spike? He's taking the tunnels here, Warren might connected this building to them. Maybe he ran into them. "

Willow pulled her phone out of her pocket with a smile. "Of course baby, I can't believe I didn't think of that!" She had just started to dial when they heard the echo of a gunshot reverberate through the room.


	21. Chapter 21

Spike was blasted backward by the force of the bullet when it entered his chest. He slammed against the wall and stayed there looking dazed. "No!" Lucas was finally able to scream out. He tried to rush to the vampire's side but was grabbed and hurled back by Warren.

The gun was inches from the young man's infuriated face. "Climb the god damned ladder." Warren yelled, shaking with his own rage.

Spike slowly got to his feet, his vampiric features thrown into deeper relief by the shadows. "Why the bloody hell would you shoot me? That hurt, you berk." He dabbed at the slowly oozing blood. "Come on now, you grew up in this town. You should know that won't kill me."

"Stay back." Warren ordered, pulling Lucas in front of him and sliding the gun barrel under his chin, forcing his head up. "Just stay away from me."

Lucas grit his teeth, his blue eyes piercing Spike's. The vampire sighed, "I can't. I have to stay with the kid."

"Why? Why are you helping him? You're evil."

"Well, yeah. But there are scarier things out there than me. Namely, Willow when she's pissed." Spike looked at the blood on his hands. "Do know how much I'll have to drink to heal this? Pig's blood doesn't do nearly as much as human."

Warren blinked at him and the gun dropped a fraction of an inch. Lucas was able to swallow and relax the muscles in his neck slightly. "What do you mean? Why would you drink pig's blood?"

"I… uh…" Spike realized the misstep too late. "Part of my… employment to the witch. Can't touch a human unless she gives the say so." He smiled and ran a tongue along his upper teeth. "She didn't say not to have a bite of you though…"

"You work for her?" Warren asked in disbelief. "Why?"

Spike hesitated, "why does it matter? She's strong, and she's smart. Now that Buffy's um… busy… she's the big dog round here."

Lucas rolled his eyes at the fumbled statement and Warren snorted. "You mean now that she's dead."

"Oh, you noticed that, did you?"

"Yeah, she didn't come bursting in after the first person I deleted and I did a little digging." He made a disgusted face. "Not, like, actual digging… I asked around. There were witnesses to her jumping. Everyone thought they were crazy people, and maybe they were, but they knew what happened."

Spike shrugged, taking a small step closer. "So? We've gone on without her. Many hands make light work and all that."

A new voice called down from the trap door. "Get them up here, the others are figuring out where you went."

Warren jumped when he heard the voice. He motioned Spike with the gun. "I can't kill you with this but it will hurt again. And while you're down, I'll shoot Lucas. Willow will hang you out to dry in the sun." He jerked his head backwards, "up, we'll follow you."

"Bloody hell, I should have left town went I had the chance." Spike muttered as he leapt up the ladder.

Warren shoved Lucas towards it as well. When he looked up, he saw Spike pulled up by a clearly not human appendage, followed by loud cursing and crashes. "Awesome… just awesome." He groaned as he followed the same path.

* * *

Willow dropped her phone in shock when they heard the gunshot. They all turned as one to the direction the sound came from. "The panic room?" Xander asked in confusion. "But I checked there." He ran back into the room, with the other's at his heels.

Jayde pushed by him and stared at the bed. She carefully ran her fingers along the edge of the sheet, closest to the wall, then pulled on it. The sheet seemed to pull directly out from the wall a few inches. "There's something here! It's a false wall. How do we open it?"

"I think with this," Willow responded, trying on the lock screen. "There must be a code or something."

"Think Warren is the kind of person to have a list of passwords laying around?" Xander asked hopefully.

Willow rolled her eyes and started to pull the screen loose with her fingers. She smiled appreciatively when Jayde handed her the dagger and easily popped it free. Peering at the tangle of wires with a sigh, she stepped back. "I don't know if I can open it. This is a little beyond me."

Tim reached for the screen and took it from her. "Let me try, I'm not as good as Lucas, but he taught me a few tricks."

* * *

At the top of the ladder, Lucas saw he had entered a small bare room. He was relieved to not have to be hoisted by whatever Spike was grappling with, but when he saw it clearly, his breath got stuck in his throat. Scrambling backwards, he tripped and hit the floor hard. "Wha… what is that?"

"That, young man, is what is commonly known as a bug demon. Ugly, but loyal and strong." Lucas looked up at the voice. A wheelchair bound man with brown hair peered down at him. "They operate under a hive mind, all thinking as one. I found this fellow wandering around LA alone, and lost. I took him in and now he obeys me."

Lucas' eyes widened at the sights before him. Spike was finally being subdued by the beast's cockroach like limbs. And the human watching the display, was smiling proudly. "You're… you're Dr. Kerchum."

"Yes, and who might you be?"

Lucas stood, and reached out his hand. "I'm Lucas Wolenczak, you're ...kind of one of my heroes."

Dr. Kerchum raised an eyebrow at the empty cuff hanging from his wrist, but shook the hand anyhow. "I am intrigued to meet you, young man. Although the circumstances leave something to be desired."

After letting out a heavy sigh, Lucas nodded with a smirk. "That isn't going to get an argument from me."

"Well, that's a first." Warren snorted, poking his head through the trap door. He stepped out and closed it, programing a code into the small screen next to it. "Do you have something I can put on top of this? They managed to mess up my last lock." He narrowed his eyes at Lucas. "And unless he's in a straitjacket, I don't trust him not to try some crazy escape plan."

"Warren, Mr. Wolenczak is our guest. We should treat him as such."

"You are aware that I am being held against my will, right?" Lucas deadpanned.

Dr. Kerchum nodded, "yes, and I apologize for that. But there is no reason why shouldn't be civil." A smile crossed his face, but to Lucas, it seemed like a shark's smile. He swallowed nervously and reminded himself not to be blinded for his admiration for this man. "Warren, will you please remove the handcuffs?"

Warren hesitated, but then nodded, carefully approaching him. Lucas smugly held out his wrist, but wasn't surprised when Warren took hold of it rougher than necessary to enlist a grunt of pain. Instead of cursing him, Lucas smirked. "Thanks." The two young males met eyes, and an intense staring contest started.

"Oi! Wankers!" Spike yelled from underneath the large creature. The bug demon had him spread eagle on the floor, his limbs each held down by a different appendage. It's hard brown face inches from his. "Can you call off your damn bug?"

"He won't hurt you… unless there are eggs implanted in your head." Dr. Kerchum called. "Doyle, come here." The demon jumped off of Spike and scampered towards Lucas and Dr. Kerchum. The older man held out an affectionate hand, while the younger hurried to stay out of the way.

Spike stood and dusted himself off, trying to regain some composure. Dr. Kerchum took the time to inspect the ridges that still stood out on Spike's face. "You are a very interesting specimen."

"I… what do you mean?" Spike asked, narrowing his yellow eyes.

Instead of answering him, Dr. Kerchum turned to Lucas. "Young man, I am on the cusp of making something amazing. You now have the opportunity to join me." His cold smile returned, and Lucas stiffened.

"What is it?"

He didn't answer immediately, stroking the head of the demon. "With some of the military connections I made long ago, I am in Sunnydale to invent a new race, an army if you will." He finally answered chillingly.

Lucas shook his head, not understanding, but Spike spoke up. "You're building a new Adam."

Dr. Kerchum scoffed loudly. "Adam was a prototype who was easily mislead. Much like the biblical version. I, my new friends, am creating Cain."


	22. Chapter 22

"What are you talking about?" Lucas asked, shaking his head and clearly lost. "Who is Adam?"

"A fun little project the Initiative cooked up." Spike growled angrily. "Part demon, part human, and part computer. Wanted to take over the world and all that."

"The Initiative?"

"They made the control chips." Spike informed him, glaring at Dr. Kerchum. "And now I think this bloke had something to do with it."

Dr. Kerchum smiled, "people do have a habit of asking me for help with their problems."

Lucas swallowed, "and Stark? Did you help her with what she did? When she … she tortured us?"

"Yes, some, I seem to attract time travelers. Although, I'll admit she went too far with you and the other young man." Lucas breathed a sigh of relief and allowed himself to relax some. "There are better ways that do not leave so many marks."

He flinched at the sudden thought, but resolved to not take the bait. "And why do you want me to help you? I don't know much about genetic engineering, only what I've read. And I think most of that is years beyond what can be done in this time."

Dr. Kerchum shrugged, and tilted his head. "I can always use another hand at the helm, on the computer side. Warren here has helped me immensely, but now he has his own goals."

"And if I don't want to help you? Xander said I survived what Stark did, you can't make me do anything I don't want too." He lifted his head defiantly.

The cold shark smile crossed Kerchum's face again. "Much like Dr. Frankenstein, I still need a mind for my monsters. I had hoped you would help me program the AI, but if not…" He trailed off, his eyes lighting up. "No one said you have to survive. Warren told me of your intelligence, wouldn't you want your brain to live forever?"

Lucas wasn't able to respond as his mind raced. "Leave him be." Spike snapped, taking a step closer. "You have a whole town full of people to choose from."

Dr. Kerchum regarded him for a moment. "What is he to you, vampire?"

"Nothing but another little git I have to try protecting."

"And why are you trying to protect a human? You should be feasting on him."

Spike snorted, "I'm not a mindless eating machine… most of the time. Xander likes him, and Willow likes Xander. It's all very fluffy until Willow is out for your blood. Leave him be." He repeated in a snarl.

Dr. Kerchum stared at him in silence for a few moments. "Are you sure there is no other reason... Hostel seventeen?" Spike sucked in a breath and stumbled backwards as if he had been struck. Dr. Kerchum smiled cruelly and then turned to Lucas. "You have a choice young man, you can willingly help me, or not. But I would suggest you decide the path of staying alive. I don't like to get my hands messy."

"You won't get away with this." Lucas hissed, "they'll will stop you."

"That's the great thing about being a genius, there aren't many people smarter than you, so you are rarely captured."

* * *

"Willow, can I use your phone?" Tim asked, pulling two wires free from the wall.

She slowly handed it to him, "you aren't going to break it are you?"

"Um... Maybe?" He smiled sheepishly, "Lucas should be able to fix it though." After Willow relinquished the device, Tim opened the back and connected the wires to the circuit board inside. Flipping it open, he started to key in numbers.

"Do I want to know why Lucas taught you that one?" Jayde asked, looking around him at what he was doing.

She caught the grin spreading on his face. "Ben thought he could keep us out of his room after he snuck a girl on the ship. Only Lucas did this with a PAL"

Tim started to flush deeply. "And I'll _never_ help him break into Ben's room ever again. There are things I do _not_ need to know." He shuddered so violently he nearly dropped phone. "Why anyone would ever get a tattoo there... Or a piercing... Needles have no place anywhere near..." Tim suddenly realized his young audience was looking at him in a combination of shock and amusement. "I uh... This should be done soon."

* * *

Dr. Kerchum wheeled his chair until he was face to face with Lucas. The bug demon followed him protectively. "So what do you think, young man?"

Lucas' blue eyes narrowed into slits. "I think you're a freaking psychopath."

Before he could blink, Kerchum struck him with a resounding slap across the face, sending him reeling to the floor. "Maybe you should learn some respect."

Lucas spat blood from his mouth and pushed himself upright. He was shaking in fury, "maybe you should earn some."

"Warren!" Dr. Kerchum snapped, "secure them. Perhaps they just need some time to understand the severity of their situation."

Spike snarled menacingly at Warren as he approached. "Uh... How?"

Kerchum snorted, "it's all for show. I helped design the chip in his head, even with the demon's natural resistance to pain, it's incredibly painful for him to attack a human."

"It's not so bad." Spike growled, "I've had worse."

"I can see why the Initiative was so interesting in you. You seem very brave, but I hope you are smart enough to know when to use that bravery." Spike glared at him silently. "But perhaps it won't be up to _your_ bravery."

Without actually looking at Lucas, he addressed him. "If you don't wish to help with my... generic tinkering, there are other options. I am in need of subjects to test a new invention. I've been using electric shock as way to train and control demons. But I wish to branch out to using it on humans as well. The problem being the amount of wattage sometimes stops their hearts. I'm still fine tuning the balance of pain and power. You can be on either side of it... giving or receiving." Lucas felt his stomach drop as he went pale. "I've been told by the demons I have tested on, it's worse than being in a hell dimension. You can imagine what it might do to a human."

He nodded to Warren, "you know what to do with them. Doyle, come." Dr. Kerchum rolled away with the bug demon following closely.

Warren didn't speak, instead, pointing to a doorway behind Lucas. After sighing, the teen walked into the small cement room, he heard Spike follow him. Inside the room there were several thick chains bolted into the wall, with wide metal collars attached. "Put them on." Warren ordered, "and..."

"Yeah, we get it, no funny business." Lucas retorted, "this isn't a mobster movie." Spike sat and clipped one of the collars around his neck, fixing Warren with an angry stare as he did so. Lucas copied him, sitting close, separated only by a broken chain.

Warren tugged on the chains to ensure they couldn't escape, and locked a padlock on each collar. He left, slamming the steel door behind him, laughing.

"So, genius boy, it's your turn for a clever plan." Spike informed him, leaning his head back. "Any ideas?"

"Yeah, one. But it will probably get both of us in a lot of trouble."

* * *

**Author's Note: Just a short one tonight, I'll probably have another one for you tomorrow. **


	23. Chapter 23

Xander jiggled his leg against Jayde's restlessly. She finally pressed down on it with her hand while giving him a fierce look. "Sorry," he whispered. "This is just taking too long."

She leaned back on the cot they were seated on, "I know. Not a lot we can do about it though."

"Want to play twenty questions?" Dawn asked optimistically. Her smile slipped a little when Xander glared at her. "You know... Pass the time?"

Tim gave a shout of joy before anyone could answer. "I think it's ready!" The screen chirped in his hand, and they turned to watch the false wall rise up.

They started to charge forward, until Willow held up a hand. "Slow down, we don't know what's in there." She pulled a thin metal flask from her pocket.

Jayde raised an eyebrow, "you better have enough of that to go around."

"I have enough for the whole room." Willow responded with a mischievous grin. She unscrewed the lid, and poured the thick liquid into her hand. "Fiat Lux!" She tossed it into the dark tunnel, a soft glow illuminated the area. The others around her gave soft grunts of approval, as Tara smiled at her girlfriend proudly.

"Since when do you carry the liquid light around with you in a flask?" Xander asked, heading through the opening.

"Since rooms and buildings started to randomly change or go completely away." She shrugged, "seemed like a good idea."

They started searching the tunnel, coming to a stop at each of the ladders to check the trapdoors above them. "None of them open." Reported Tim, climbing down from the last one. "So now what?"

"Look at this..." Tara bent down and picked up a snubbed cigarette butt. "Isn't this Spike's brand?"

Willow took it from her. "Yeah, I've bought them enough times... They... Or at least he was here." She pointed to the ladder nearest to them, "they must be in that one."

Xander climbed the ladder and started pounding on the door. "Xander... You're gonna get shot... Again." Dawn called after him.

He huffed and dropped back down, "so how do we get in?"

Tim looked from one end of the tunnel to the other. "The front door? We can probably figure out what building it is based on how far apart these ladders are."

"Or we'll surprise some cultists doing a sacrifice. You never know around here..." Xander quipped dryly.

Dawn started to skip down to the tunnel entrance, singing. "Gonna kill some demons, gonna kill some demons."

"And that's what happens when you're raised in Sunnydale." Xander laughed as he raced to catch up her, the others just shook their heads.

* * *

"So? I already fouled up your rescue I don't think I can get in more trouble."

Lucas smirked, "this just might be worse. How long have been drinking only pig's blood?"

"A couple of years... Why?"

Before Lucas could respond, the door opened, and Warren walked through. "You were demanding food earlier?" He was carrying two bags, one was clearly from a fast food place and the other plain brown.

"Yeah, thanks, I haven't eaten since..." Lucas creased his forehead. "You know, I'm actually not sure."

Warren smirked, and set down the bags next to door, far beyond their reach. "Say you'll help, and you both get fed right now." His grin grew, "Dr. Kerchum said to bring it in, I'm just adding some motivation."

"You really are a jerk aren't you?" Lucas sighed, eyeing the bags.

He shrugged, "not really, I'm basically saving you from horrible horrible torture. I'm the good guy here… not that I wouldn't enjoy watching you scream in pain." Lucas shut his mouth with a snap, taking deep breaths and looking away.

"Get out, you tosser!" Spike growled, even though he was eyeing the brown bag with bright eyes.

"Fine, see ya later." Warren turned and slammed the door closed again.

Lucas looked at the bags mournfully. "That's just mean."

"I can smell it better than you, and it's fresh, how'd you think I feel?" Spike licked his lips rapidly. "What's your plan, before I start gnawing on my own arm?"

"Oh... um... If you drink human blood... Do you get stronger?"

Spike snorted, "yeah, fat lot of good that does me. I can't touch anything with a soul."

"I thought you said it didn't hurt much."

"Yeah, well... I lied. Don't like my weaknesses being out for everyone to see." Spike leaned his head against the wall, and closed his eyes. "Bad enough I got shot."

Lucas stared at the floor, "sorry about that by the way, that's pretty much all my fault."

"Don't be, had worse. He didn't light me on fire at least," Spike snorted.

"You've been on fire?" Lucas winced in sympathy, "ow."

"Yeah, not fun. So...?"

"So? So what?"

Spike opened one eye and squinted it. "So what's your plan?"

"Oh! Um... If you don't actually have to fight them... Could you drink someone's blood?" Lucas asked, he hoped Spike didn't hear his heart beating wildly in his chest. He didn't want the vampire knowing he was as terrified as he truly was.

Spike opened his eyes again, "are you planning to knock one of them unconscious and slit their throats?" Lucas inhaled sharply at his casual sounding question. "Because, no offense, but I don't think you have that in you. Not that I don't appreciate the offer."

"No... That's not what I meant." Spike leaned his head back again, but eyed him critically. "Like if... someone is willing..."

Spike jumped upright and stared into his eyes, grabbing hold of his upper arm. Lucas flinched at the movement, then gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stare back. "Well?"

"Why? Why would you even ask me that? It's worse than leaving the bags by the door, I can reach you."

"Would you be strong enough to get us free and fight past them... if you don't um... drain me completely?" He finished in a whisper.

"Yes..." Spike tugged on the chain holding him. "I can pull them loose. But, if I take all I need, you'll be unconscious, and probably dying."

"I know I will be, you'll have to carry me." Lucas sighed, annoyed at the idea that he would be dead weight, no matter the reason. "You'll have to get me to a doctor right away, or Willow, if she can help."

Spike studied him. "The moment you fight, I'll have to stop."

The teen swallowed nervously, but nodded. "I… I'll try not to. Will it work?"

"I've never tried anything like that. Only one way to find out..."

Lucas nodded again, not trusting his voice. Pushing himself flat on the floor, he turned his head, exposing his neck. He slid his hands under his back, in case he started to fight. After he closed his eyes tightly, he tried to slow his breathing and waited.

"No..." Spike's voice cracked painfully over the short word. Lucas carefully opened his eyes, the vampire had already switched to his demonic visage, but was shaking his head. "Not from your jugular... I don't know if I'll be able to stop, and it'll be too easy to snap your neck." He tried to ignore the pulsing vine under the thin skin. With a shudder, he fought his demon instincts back down.

Spike seized his arm, pulling it free, and seemed to steel himself. "If you die, I'm telling Willow to kick your ass instead of mine." The smallest of pauses occurred, and he plunged his teeth into Lucas' exposed wrist.

* * *

Blinking in the brighter lights of the warehouse, the not so successful rescue party ran through the door into the midmorning sun. "It should just be a few blocks down." Tim called over his shoulder, leaping over the immobile Buffy-bot.

The others followed him huffing. "Remind me not to eat so many doughnuts." Xander gasped, "I'm too young to be breathing like this."

Minutes later, they came to a stop in front of a large field. Tim looked from end to the other. "It... It has to be here."

"Are you sure we didn't take wrong turn in the warehouse?" Jayde asked, bending over and holding her knees. She tried to pretend her broken rib wasn't hurting, but felt a hand on her back. After taking another deep breath, she straighten and nodded to Tara. "I'm good, thanks."

"Could it be hidden with magic again?" Xander asked, he stood on the edge of the road and reached out his hand blindly.

Willow pushed him away, "stop that before you get sucked into a portal or something... again."

He scowled at her but stepped back. "Ok, fine, but how do we get in?"

Instead of answering, she sat where had been standing and closed her eyes. "There is something here," she stated moments later. She carefully got to her feet and reached out. "Here..."

"Oh, so you can feel around but I can't?" Xander pouted, he didn't see the eye roll he got, but he could sense it.

"I don't think there is magic being used to keep us out, just to hide it. I can't feel any danger." She took a step forward with her hand still outstretched. Her fingers bent down as if she came in contact with something. She turned excitedly, "I think it's a..."

A bolt of blue electricity arched down from above her and shot directly into her chest, blowing her backwards. She summersaulted on the street several feet, coming to rest in a crumpled heap. Tara screamed and ran to her. After wiping the blood off of Willow's face, she hurriedly checked her vitals. Her face was horror stricken, "she doesn't have a pulse."


	24. Chapter 24

**Author's Note: Kind of a trigger warning in this and the next chapter for... well, a couple things really.**

* * *

When he heard the scream, Lucas clamped his mouth and eyes closed, assuming it was himself. It was followed by a low moan that definitely wasn't him, and he peeked one eye open. Spike was laying flat on the floor beside him, holding his head. "Still not possible, huh?"

Spike groaned and force himself into a seated position. "Bloody hell… not even someone willing?"

"That uh... seemed worse than before, why?"

He shrugged, "I'm not sure, maybe because I wasn't expecting it. Or it had something to do with actually trying to bite you." Spike ran his hand through his hair. "Do I have to lap it up from a puddle? Would that make you bleedin happy?" He bellowed to the ceiling.

If the situation had been at all different, Lucas would have burst out laughing. As it was, a slightly hysterical giggle escaped his lips. "That might be an idea…"

"What is?" Spike stood and looked down at him.

Lucas picked up the broken chain between them and ran his thumb along the sheared link. "It's pretty sharp."

"No! Absolutely not. Are you daft?" Spike glowered at him. He made a swipe to grab the chain, but Lucas flicked it away from him. "When I bite someone, I can control the bleeding… slash yourself on that, you won't stop until you're empty."

"Look," Lucas snapped, standing and facing the angry vampire. "You need blood to get us out. I have blood, it isn't that hard to figure out." He took a breath and tried to calm himself. "I… I would rather die trying get out, than be tortured, and then have my brain ripped from my head. This is all I have to offer right now."

"Don't be foolish, you'll dump it all over and waste it." Spike protested feebly.

"Then you'll have to drink fast… and run fast."

"And if I need to fight?"

Lucas shrugged, "dump me on the floor, I won't sue."

"And how do we get out?"

"What do you mean?"

"Warren locked the trap door."

"Oh…" Lucas rubbed his face as he thought for a few moments. "The front door? There has to be one somewhere."

Spike went quiet, having run out of arguments and thinking over possible options. "Fine, but deal still stands, if you die, it's your ass." He sighed, "I guess I should ask if you want me to bring you back if it goes wrong."

Lucas stared at him. "I've never thought about anything like that. Can you?"

"Yeah, but you'll be an evil killing machine." Spike grinned, "it might be interesting what you come up with, with your all brains and what not. Be a whole new world out there for my kind."

"You're not so evil, how bad could I be?" Lucas asked thoughtfully.

Spike snorted then laughed outright. "I've this bloody chip hobbling me, I use to be something terrifying. They called me William the bloody." He sighed, "and I'm over a hundred years old, I've had time to refine my techniques."

"William? Your name is William?"

"Yeah... what of it." Spike glared at him sidelong.

Lucas shrugged, "I donno, you just don't really seems like a William. And do I want to know where the bloody came from?"

"No," Spike snapped, "give you nightmares... just know that I... I could do some... things." He folded his arms over his chest. "So do you want to?"

"Oh..." his eyes glazed over as he looked over Spike's shoulder. "It would be interesting. So much extra time… And I don't see the sun anyhow." Lucas shook his head and smiled ruefully. "I think I'll go with no, actually. I couldn't do that to the people I care about. And with Jayde… um, no thanks." He laughed shortly, "I also really don't need Tim sending me through the wall when we meet up again."

The vampire laughed again and shook his head. "That little unassuming prat... Well, I'll just say that was new."

"So you won't, um… change me if I don't want it?"

"Nah, I don't do that anymore." Spike held up three fingers. "Scout's honor."

Lucas grinned in response. "So how... uh, and where do I do it?"

"Here." Spike tapped the outside of his upper thigh.

"What?" Lucas blinked, his face twisted in shock and confusion. "Um... my thigh... why?"

"Because, it's a major vein branching from an artery, and you'll bleed freely, but not to death." Spike's voice was irritated, but a smirk played on his lips. "And cut some of your pants away, I don't fancy denim in my teeth." Reaching to the bottom of his plain white t-shirt, he tore it in half, up to the neck. He freed it completely from the collar and chain with another jerk.

Lucas put up his hands and took a step back. "Ok, this is starting to get weird... I..."

"Take your belt off." Spike ordered, ignoring him.

"And you just made it weirder." Lucas took another step back, hitting the wall. "Look, I know that we're probably about to die... But this really really isn't the place and I'm not into guys."

Spike let out an annoyed sigh as he wadded the shirt into a square. Pointing at it with one hand, he said, "bandage." He pointed to Lucas's waist, "way to hold the bandage so you don't die when I'm trying to save your damn life."

"Oh..." A blush creeped up Lucas' face. "Sorry..."

"I know you're a teenage boy, but try not to think about sex for a few minutes." Spike pressed his teeth together in a grimace, "especially when I'm eating."

"Uh... yeah, of course." His blush deepened as he pulled the belt free.

"Worse than Dru, always thinking with her... And not the place, no kidding... Not bloody likely." Spike muttered to himself.

Lucas pulled the leg of his jeans as far away from the skin as possible and torn a wide hole with the chain. "Should I... uh lay down?" An eye roll answered him. "Of course, stupid question." He laid on the floor again holding the link in his hand.

Lucas hesitated, gripping the chain tightly, his hand white knuckled and shaking. Spike carefully crouched down beside him and poked the side of his leg. "Here, and go across, not along." He directed softly.

He jumped at the sudden touch, but nodded and pressed the sharp edge to his flesh.

* * *

Tim pushed past Tara and confirmed Willow had no pulse. He threaded his hands together and started pushing on his chest. "Do you know how to help with CPR?"

She shook her head helplessly. "I can." Jayde approached them and knelt beside Willow's head. After Tim reached the count of fifteen, she blew into her mouth, and checked for a pulse again. "Keep going."

"Call for help!" Tim yelled, as he resumed compressions.

Tara patted her pockets, "we left the phone in the warehouse."

"I... I'll get it." Dawn took off running, half blinded by tears.

Tim finished another set and looked ad Jayde hopefully. She shook her head sadly. "We can shock her using the building." Xander offered. "If... if whatever that was, stopped her heart, maybe it can start it again."

"That might work." Tim said, standing. "Help me carry her." Tim grasped her shoulders as Xander took her legs. They ran to the side of the street, and leaned her where they thought the wall started. Willow sagged but stayed upright, and they hurriedly stepped away. A moment later the electricity arched down again, blowing her back into their arms.

Xander placed two fingers under her pale chin. "Got it! And she's breathing too." He grinned in relief, "she's gonna be ok."

Tara stood, supported by Jayde. "What do we do? I... we can't leave her here, and we can't leave Lucas and Spike behind."

"When the ambulance comes, go with her. Take Dawn too." Tim ordered gravely, "we'll get Lucas."

"But how?" Jayde asked fearfully. "We can't even touch the damn wall."

Tim placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "We'll figure it out. He wouldn't give up on us, we won't give up on him." He smiled at her. "If I know him, he's already causing so much trouble they may just kick him out."

She smiled back through her tears and nodded. "Ok."


	25. Chapter 25

**Author's note: Continuation of the trigger warning thing. And a bad bad word.**

* * *

Lucas let out a hiss of breath as the metal entered his leg. He pushed down fast, and dropped the chain, shaking. When Spike reached out and started to collect the free flowing blood in his palm, Lucas had to look away. "Is it working?" He asked, squeezing his eyes closed.

There was a quiet slurping sound and Lucas' stomach lurched at the thought. "Yeah, no shocks." Spike's voice answered him, sounding strangely labored.

"Just… just hurry up." Lucas rasped. He wanted to clutch at the wound for some sort of relief, but knew it would hamper the progress.

A scream ripped out of his mouth when Spike carefully probed the injury with his hand. "Shit, sorry kid. I'm just trying to get it out faster."

"I'm not a kid." Lucas panted, balling his hands into tight fists. "That… that didn't activate the chip?"

Spike didn't answer right away, and Lucas heard the stomach turning sound again. "No, I wasn't trying to hurt you. I've bumped into people before and been fine. Somehow, it understands intent."

"That's kind of amazing."

"Not the word I tend use for it."

"Oh, right, sorry." He opened his eyes, and had to close them almost immediately. "The room is spinning. That's bad, right?"

Spike leaned back slightly, "depends, are you going to puke on me?"

"Don't think so."

"Then no, well… yes, your body is reacting to the blood loss. But good for what I'm trying to do." Spike resumed his work.

Lucas groaned, "how much longer, this really sucks." He started to giggle loudly. "Sucks… and you're…"

"Are you cold yet?"

"No, not really." Lucas caught his breath long enough to take stock of himself. "I do feel really weird." He opened his eyes again, and tried to focus on them.

Spike nodded at him. "You're getting delirious, but not cold, so just a bit longer."

"Why do you think I'm delirious?"

"Because you just had a laugh about me draining your blood."

"Oh… fair point." He leaned his head to the side, and sighed. "It doesn't hurt… any… more." His breath was becoming difficult, and Spike stopped to stare at his pale face.

"Hey!" He shook the young man. "Stay with me."

"Why?" Lucas giggled again. "You're doing all the fighting… I'm… I'm just the fuel. Think of me like a protein shake."

Spike pulled on the chain, and it came half way out of the wall. "Because I'm not done yet, and the longer you stay awake, the better your chances of living."

"I don't think that's true." Lucas whispered faintly, wearily closing his eyes again.

"Fine, maybe it's the only way I know I'm not just flat out killing you. And I like some light conversation with my dinner."

A ghost of a smile played at Lucas' lips, but he didn't respond. "Damn it." Spike started pressing on the wound again, preparing himself to pay the price. When nothing happened, he drank as rapidly as he could. "This better not mean you're about to die." He muttered through mouthfuls.

Spike could feel a stirring inside of him he hadn't felt for years. A strength and vitality he had forgotten was ever part of him. With great difficulty, he pulled away from the weeping injury and ripped at the chain holding Lucas to the wall. It tore free from the bolt, and he twisted the collar off his own neck. "Alright, then."

Working quickly, but carefully, he used the prepared shirt and belt to stop the bleeding, and balled up the chain. He picked the thin teen up, resting the chain on his chest. Spike wanted to take it completely off, but understood it may damage Lucas' body farther than it already was.

The vampire paused, his ear cocked to Lucas' chest, after he was satisfied he could still hear a heartbeat, he crossed the small room. Kicking the door open and only slowing to snatch up the bag smelling of pig's blood, he charged from the prison cell.

The outer room was empty, much to his relief, and there was only one other door to choose from. Spike stopped and popped open the container of blood, suspiciously sniffing it before swallowing it in a couple gulps. "Ehg, nothing at all like the real thing." He tossed the bag behind him, and headed for the door.

It too, opened easily under the force of his boot. But this larger room was not empty, Warren spun in shock when he heard the noise of the door crashing open. Dr. Kerchum turned a bit slower, but looked much less surprised. "I guess you weren't so protective of your young friend." He said scathingly, directing Doyle with a hand gesture.

Spike shrugged and carefully slid Lucas to the floor. "I did what I had to, told you that bloody chip didn't do much."

"That's a shame, he could have done quite a bit for me."

Spike closely watched the bug demon approach him, "so I'll just be going then."

"What's the rush?" Dr. Kerchum, asked watching the impending fight with great interest. "Doyle so rarely gets enough exercise. This will be good for him."

"Take him to a bloody dog park." Spike growled, shifting into a defensive crouch. He attempted to position himself in front of Lucas without being obvious, but Warren caught the action, and started for the unconscious blonde.

He narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing? Saving some for later?"

"Maybe I am, maybe I plan to chain him in my own little dungeon and make him pay for being such an annoying little shit." Doyle started to circle around, him and Spike followed with his eyes, while keeping his body facing Warren.

Dr. Kerchum raised an eyebrow, "so he isn't dead?"

"I got full." Spike snapped back. "What is it to you?"

"Everything." Was the short answer. "I can offer you your freedom if you just step out of the way."

Spike snorted, and smirked. "I think you've underestimated me. I don't need your backhanded deals to get my freedom."

"Even from the chip in your head?" Spike stopped following Doyle's movements, and stared at Dr. Kerchum.

"You can take it out?"

"Yes, very easily. We can do it today in fact."

Spike glanced down at the body sprawled behind him, a tangle of emotions crossed his face. He finally decided on fury, and aimed a kick at the thorax of Doyle, who was trying to sneak up on his flank. There was the satisfying crunch of exoskeleton, and the bug demon dropped to the ground, keening. "I'll have to decline."

"You are making a grave error." Kerchum informed him, gripping the arms of his chair tightly.

"Am I?" Spike smirked, "I might as well make another one then." He spun to Warren and swung a fist, connecting with the young man's jaw. Warren fell like a stone, and Spike dropped to one kneel holding his head. "Nope, still seems like it's worth it."

Dr. Kerchum started to roll his chair backwards, looking for a way out that didn't involve the enraged and possibly insane vampire. "You want the boy? Fine, take him. I'll find another."

Spike stood, popping his knuckles and smiling manically. "For all this trouble, I think you owe me a little retribution." He raised his leg, and slammed the heel of his boot into the bug demon's head. There was another loud crunch, and it stopped moving. "A new pair of shoes for example. These seem to be ruined."

"I… I can get those, nicer ones even." Kerchum stammered and looked sickened by the goop splashed around the floor that had been his pet.

"What?" Spike sneered, "this bothers you? It's just a damn bug. There are millions of them. I'd be more worried about yourself, you're an endangered species, Doc."

Dr. Kerchum backed up again, until he hit the edge of a desk. Groping behind him, he flashed a smile and pushed a button. Blue and white bolts of light flashed down in the shape of bars, encircling him and his chair. "One of the projects I've been working on. Perhaps you would like to help test it before you leave?"

"I'm not stupid, I won't touch your little demon frying toy. You can test it yourself." Spike laughed, "I hope it breaks down and leaves you in there for a few days." He bent, and picked up Lucas again, hoisting him on his shoulder. He also took hold of Warren, but must less carefully, and dragged his sagging form by the collar.

"I know you probably don't give a damn, but your sorcerer's apprentice is coming with me for a bit. You can pick him up later. Willow wants a word with him."

"I'll find Lucas again, it doesn't really matter." Kerchum called after him. "I'll find a way to execute him and the people around him. He had a choice to part of greatness, and he threw that away."

Spike rested one hand on the doorknob, and cast a last look over his shoulder for the doctor. "You know you're douche bag, right?" He grinned at the sputters behind him, and pushed open the door into the daylight. The sun ached across him before Spike slammed the door closed again, his bare chest smoldering. He turned to Dr. Kerchum, "this is ruining my tell off, but do you have a blanket or something?"

* * *

Tim lifted his head when he heard the sirens coming, and saw Dawn racing towards them. She finally stumbled to a stop in front of Tara, gasping for air. "They…. they're on the way." She looked worriedly at Willow, her head cradled in Tara's lap. "How is she?"

"Her pulse is back, but not stable, and she has some burns from the energy bolts." Jayde reported quietly.

Dawn nodded, "any word on Lucas?"

Tim shook his head, "we're looking again as soon as the paramedics take her. And…" he paused when heard a sound behind him, and turned. A door opened, seemingly from nowhere, and a blond man wearing a torn trench coat stumbled out. He was carrying two males with him and dumped them, before running to find some shade.

The group watched him with wide eyes. "Lucas!" Jayde gasped, and ran to his side. She fought to hold in a shriek when she saw the bloody bandage wrapped around his leg.

"What happened?" Tim asked, shaking out of his shock. "Was he shot?"

"No," Spike called from the other side of the street, under a large tree. "I bloody well was the one shot. He… he just helped me get both of us out."

Tim snapped his head around to stare at the partially hidden vampire. "What do you mean?" Spike didn't answer, but subconsciously licked his lips. Tim looked from him to the bandage, and then started to storm to the tree. "You fed on him?!"

"I… I had… he made me…" Spike stammered, stumbling backwards in an effort to escape the irate communications officer.

"He made you?" Tim's face was twisted in rage. "You killed him, you sick motherfucker!"


	26. Chapter 26

Tim took a step closer, his hands clenched tightly. Spike tried to retreat again, walking backwards until he was at the edge of the shade. "You don't… you don't understand. I didn't…" He brought his palms up, trying to defend himself without seeming as a threat.

"Tim! You need to get over here, he's alive." Jayde yelled as she leaned over Lucas. The ambulance pulled up, the lights reflecting in her wet eyes.

"You should leave, I don't want to kill you in front of your friends." Tim whispered angrily, "but if he dies, I will hunt you down and destroy you."

"No." Spike growled back. "He saved my life as much as his own. I didn't bloody well abandon him in there, I won't out here."

Tim gapped at him, "What are you talking about?"

"I couldn't break the chains, wasn't strong enough. Lucas cut himself open so I could eat and get us out." Spike responded quietly, watching the paramedics race to three unconscious young people on the ground.

"He… he did that to himself?"

"I couldn't bite him, I tried." Spike sighed, and shook his head. "He knew it was probably the only way we could get out. What they had planned for us was worse than possibly dying. He wanted to at least make the attempt."

Tim scoffed in amazement, "I should have known. Lucas is…"

"Too brave for his own good?"

"Yeah, something like that." Tim nodded, and started to walk away. "Get out of the sun." He stopped and looked over his shoulder, "and thank you."

"My pleasure," Spike muttered. "They won't know what happened… they won't know how to help him."

After a sigh, Tim turned completely. "He was injured as you both tried to escape, and nearly bleed to death, that's all they need to know."

"He didn't do anything wrong." Spike hissed, "neither did I."

"Will they see it that way?"

Spike didn't have an answer, and Tim left him there, crossing back to the scene on the other side of the street. The paramedic working on Lucas looked up as he approached. "Do you know what happened?"

"He and others were abducted by him." Tim gestured to Warren angrily. "They got out fine, but he was held longer and injured trying to escape." Jayde glanced at Tim questioningly after his explanation, but Tim just shook his head to quiet her. "Will he be ok?"

"The profunda femoris has been cleanly severed and he lost a lot of blood, once we get him to the hospital, we'll know more. But we're kind of experts on blood loss. At least the makeshift bandage helped, he would be dead without it." The paramedic watched his partner with Willow as Tara and Dawn spoke to him quietly. "And her?"

"She was electrocuted while we were trying to rescue him."

He grunted and shook his head. "All connected to that guy?"

Tim nodded, "yes, his name is Warren Meers. I think he's just knocked unconscious. But he caused a lot of problems."

"I'll inform the police as soon as we're loaded up." He started to ease Lucas' body onto a backboard, and Xander and Jayde silently crouched to help.

"Will the police even do anything?" Tim asked sardonically. "I've been told they… stay back from a lot things here."

The paramedic finished tightening the straps on the board and glanced at Tim, then further on to Spike, who was still lurking under the tree. "We see a lot of strange stuff here, but something like this, a simple kidnapping, they can handle."

Xander watched Lucas and Willow being loaded into the ambulance, he could hear another siren approaching. He walked to Tim. "What did you mean before? Did Spike bite him or something? I'll help you kill him if he did."

"No…" Tim shook his head. "I… I thought he did, but Lucas just got hurt."

Xander stared at him for a few seconds. "How?"

"Blame Warren, Spike said he and Dr. Kerchum were willing to torture them to get what they wanted." Tim said shortly, before angrily walking away.

One of the paramedics held open the door, "we're ready to go, and there is room for one more to ride, two if you don't mind being tight. The other bus will take the guy who started this, they're in no real hurry."

"You… you should go with Lucas, Tim and Jayde, he's your crewmate." Tara started hesitantly, looking longingly at Willow.

"No, I want to make sure Warren doesn't disappear before he's arrested. You go." Tim stared at the remaining person laying on the ground, resisting the urge to kick him. "Take Dawn, We'll be right behind you."

Tara swallowed and hugged Tim tightly. "Thank you," she whispered, before hurrying to the waiting ambulance.

Xander grimaced when the second team of paramedics came on scene. "Oh shit, they're gonna make sure he's ok." He offered a dark smile to Tim. "Want to throw him against the wall a few times before they get to him?"

* * *

Lucas groaned at the annoying beeping noise from the monitor beside him, and squinted open one eye in the dimly lit room. Jayde was perched on a chair next to his bed, her head resting on drawn up knees. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing evenly. "I need to stop waking up in hospitals." He sighed, and closed his eyes again, comfortable in the knowledge that he and everyone else was probably in safe hands.

The soft sound of a throat being cleared caught his attention. Lucas whipped his head toward the direction of the noise. Spike stood in the doorway, looking uncomfortable. "I… um… just wanted to check on you before Timmy-boy kicks me out again." He explained quietly, stepping into the hospital room.

Lucas smiled as he rested head on the pillow again, He wrinkled his face in confusion. "Why doesn't Tim want you here? You saved my life."

"I don't think he likes me much, thinks I'm a bad influence on you or some such nonsense."

Lucas bit back a laugh, not wanting to wake up Jayde. "So it worked? Did you Hulk out?"

"Yeah, you could say that. Warren's been arrested, but Kerchum disappeared. It took them a while to get back into his hiding place." Spike looking over his shoulder. "I better go, they're all with Willow now, but I'm sure Xander will back soon."

"Wait, Willow? What happened to her?"

Spike shrugged, "not sure, they've been just giving me dirty looks all day. No one wants to talk to me."

"Why?"

"Well, partly because of the nearly draining you dry, I think. Tim told them it was something else, but I keep getting death glares, so, they know." He smiled mischievously, "and Dawn saw me pocket a bag of blood, I don't think that helped matters."

Lucas snorted, "they just need to accept that you're a vampire and move on."

"I've been trying to tell them that for years." Spike said dryly. He looked behind him again. "I'll talk to you later. Get some rest, and heal up, I might need a snack later." He agilely dodged the pillow thrown at him, and left the room laughing.

He nearly walked into Xander, who was standing in the hallway with his arms crossed over his chest. "I thought Tim told you to leave him alone."

"Look, I was just checking on him. If this is about the blood bag thing, it was just something to mix with the pig's blood, hides the taste." Spike told him defensively.

"No," Xander spat, "this is about turning my friend into your breakfast."

"I got him out. Stop prattling on about it."

Xander snorted, "yeah, but we were coming, we could have helped without almost killing him. Did you wait until he was sleeping? Or did you let Warren open up the vein?"

Spike's eyes filled with rage. "Why don't you ask Tim what really happened? He seems to be your new leader now."

He turned to walk away, but Xander caught his arm. "What do you mean? Tell me yourself what happened."

"Lucas did it himself. I tried to talk him out of it, but it was the only way to save him." Spike said, after shaking the hand loose.

Xander's jaw dropped, then snapped shut as an angry expression crossed his face. "Do you expect me to believe you didn't suggest it? That you didn't get anything from it?"

"Believe what you want. I don't care what you lot think, he's safe."

"Why do you care about what happens to him so much? You think it's funny when I get my ass kicked."

Spike stared at the floor. "I like the kid, ok? He's got guts and he makes me laugh. And he isn't half as annoying as you are."

He turned to leave again, and Xander watched him go in amazement.

* * *

**Author's Note: I probably won't have anything up for a few days, the husband is off of work and he makes me actually sleep a little. But everyone is safe... for now. Mua ha ha ha ha! **


	27. Chapter 27

The next time Lucas opened his eyes, morning light was streaming in the windows, and Jayde was walking in the doorway. A smile broke out on her face. "Hey, oh... um, should I ask if you know who I am?"

He started laughing, "yeah, you're my nurse, right?"

Jayde snorted, and tossed the bag she was carrying in his lap. "Junk food, I tried eating some of hospital's crap, not recommended. It's worse than Ben's cooking."

Lucas inhaled the aroma of grease coming from the bag. "Awesome, thanks."

Sitting on bed, Jayde watched him dig into the bag. "How is everyone else?" He asked between mouthfuls.

"Good, they're letting Willow out tomorrow."

"What happened to her? Spike said she was hurt."

Jayde's face darkened at the mention of the vampire. "A nasty defense Kerchum had set up. Stopped her heart."

"Oh..." he winced. "But she's ok? And everyone else?"

She nodded, watching him eat. "What about you? What did he do to you in there?"

"Warren?" Lucas shrugged nonchalantly, but avoided her gaze, "roughed me up a little, made some threats." He smirked, and popped a french fry into his mouth, "same old same old."

Tears started in Jayde's eyes, and she looked away hurriedly. "Oh, hey, it's ok. We got out, Warren is going to jail, and we'll deal with Dr. Kerchum. We'll find him." Lucas took hold of her hand and squeezed it.

Jayde forced a false smile, "I know... it's just a lot to deal with all at once. When I saw you... when he came out carrying you... all I could think was that we were too late." Her voice broke, and she stood, pulling away from him.

"But you weren't, we got out fine. Spike got me out, and you got me help. It worked, that's all that matters." Lucas struggled to reach for her again, leaning off the side of the bed. "That's all that matters." He repeated, catching her hand again.

She nodded, and let him pull her close again. "I just don't like the way you had to do it." She finally whispered into his chest.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I never thought of that." Lucas responded, his voice as soft as her's. "It wasn't like that... I... I did it to give us a chance."

"I know, it just kind of freaked me out when we realized what you did."

"How are you doing? With... um... everything?" Lucas gently stroked her face with his free hand.

Jayde nestled against his touch. "I've been better, but getting there. Eating and sleeping normally helped, maybe there's a reason Kristin is always bugging us about that." She chuckled when Lucas let her go to grab his burger again, and took a large bite.

"Yeah, I'm feeling better already." He said through his mouthful.

She watched him appraisingly for a while, and took a deep breath, searching his eyes. "So... uh, I asked one of the nurses to give me a pregnancy test this this morning."

Lucas stopped mid-bite and stared at her. With a great deal of difficulty, he finally swallowed, "and?"

* * *

Willow came to visit Lucas a few hours later, fighting her wheelchair. "I hate this stupid thing, but they won't let me go anywhere without it." She grumbled, getting caught on the door.

"They won't even let me out of bed by myself," Lucas chuckled at her struggles, "consider yourself lucky." He cocked his head as his smiled disappeared. "Are you ok? Jayde told me what happened."

She shrugged, "a little sore yet, but I'll be fine. The doctor said my heart wasn't damaged, I just have to not get shocked for a while." Willow snorted "cause I totally meant to do that."

Lucas picked at his blanket. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault." Willow told him firmly.

He shook his head, "no it is..."

Willow cut him off with her own head shake. "Nope, it's just a side effect of what we do." She sighed, "if I had known Spike was already on top of it, I wouldn't have touched the stupid thing. And if I had any idea of how much it was going to hurt..." She shuddered slightly.

"You remember that?"

Willow dropped her head, staring at the floor. "That's all I remember. Reaching for the wall and..." There were angry tears in her eyes when she looked up again. "I can't imagine how you would have survived it, if he tried to use that on you. You're... you're too young to even think about stuff like that."

Lucas brushed off the usual irritation he felt when being called young. Willow's expression was just too sad and sickened for him to argue. He sucked in a breath, "did Spike tell you about that? That it was one of his threats?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm not as mad at him for what you two did... or what he did, rather." She said softly. "And if that's anything Tim went through when he was abducted, it... it was horrible. Like being burned alive from the inside. I wasn't exactly upset with him when he told me about Mariah, but now I understand a lot better."

"Is there any way to stop it from happening to him?" Lucas whispered, his disturbed expression matching her's.

Willow looked away uncomfortably. "I don't know, I'll see what I can do."

* * *

"Well, I think you're ready to be checked out, Mr. Wolenczak." The doctor smiled as he put away his stethoscope. "Take it easy for a few days, if you start having severe dizzy spells, come back in. There's no damage to your brain or other organs as far as we can tell, but your blood pressure is still a little low. The muscle in your thigh was cut pretty deeply, it will take time to heal, and you'll need crutches to get around." He paused to make some mental calculations, "a week at the best, but I'd feel better if you agree to using them for two."

Lucas nodded happily, ready to agree to any rules he had to in order to leave. He had been staring at the ceiling for three days since we woke up in the hospital, with only visits from his friends and the police to break the monotony. Spike hadn't been back since he threw the pillow, and Lucas missed talking to him. The vampire never seemed worried about telling him too much or coddling him. But the few times he brought him up, he was answered with uncomfortable silences and angry expressions.

The doctor cleared his throat, attracting Lucas' attention again. "I do mean it about taking it easy. Don't go chasing after anything, if you tear those stitches out, I'll tie you to a bed until you're healed."

Lucas laughed at the very familiar sounding threat. "What would I chase?

The doctor pierced him with amused, but knowing eyes. "You're a new face around here, some of the people I've seen visiting you, are not." He shook his head, "it's... understood, that if something strange happens in town, they'll be showing up soon after."

Lucas grinned, "yeah, I'm learning that about them. I'll be careful, or at least I'll try. I don't always have control over it." He promised, rolling his eyes.

"I think you have _some_ control." Tim admonished him, walking into the room. He nodded to doctor, "when will he be ready to go?"

"Soon, I just have to finish some paperwork and you can take him. But keep him out of trouble." The doctor shook Lucas' hand and left them alone.

Lucas bit his tongue, fighting the urge to make a smart assed comment. Tim considered him for a moment, knowing what he was thinking. "So, are you going to actually listen to him, or me for that matter, and behave yourself?"

"I… I…" Lucas stammered in shock, and for once, didn't have a ready retort.

Tim turned abruptly and started to stalk from the room. "I'll see about getting you some crutches, but you might stay put for once without them."

Lucas stared after him, his jaw slack in hurt astonishment and confusion.

* * *

**Author's Note: Oh, I'm sorry, did you want to see the conversation between Jayde and Lucas? Maybe next time... oh who am I kidding, it'll be up a in a day or two. I can't be that mean to you guys. **


	28. Chapter 28

**Author's Note: Sorry this took a little longer than I had planed. I got the virus from hell and couldn't sit up for a day and half. So, here you go.**

* * *

Sitting sideways in the back seat of Xander's car, with his leg stretched out, Lucas watched the neighborhoods go by. Children were outside playing in yards, and everything looked disturbingly normal. He wondered if any of these people knew what had happened in their town only days before. If they had any idea they were nearly, or in many cases, were actually plucked from existence by an arrogant madman.

With a sigh, he looked the front of the car. Xander was driving with Tim beside him. They had barely spoken a word to anyone since Tim stormed from the room. Lucas longed to ask what was going on, but the angry set of their jaws kept him quiet. Instead, he thought back to his conversation with Jayde in the hospital.

_"And?"_

_"And... I'm not."_

_He breathed out, realizing his lungs were burning. "Oh... Well, that's good right?" Lucas searched her face, which was showing a bizarre series of emotions. _

_Finally, she nodded, but swallowed several times. "Yeah..." she whispered, "it is..."_

_"Did you want to be? I mean, we're a little young yet." Lucas raised his eyebrows, staring at her in shock._

_Jayde sighed and pushed some hair behind her ears. "No, ... and I don't really know if I can explain it." He waited patiently, studying her intently. "I... It's more that just the thought I had someone growing inside of me... And that's a big thing. I was freaked about it, but kind of excited too. I had all these little mental movies if what it would be like." She laughed dryly, "and some terrifying ones of us telling my dad." _

_"I had those too," Lucas admitted with a rueful grin. "Several in fact. I think I was safer with Warren."_

_Jayde slapped his arm lightly. "My dad is not that bad." She scolded, as she echoed his smile. "You just haven't had a chance to get to know him."_

_"Yeah, and it's easy to get to know someone, when you have to tell him you and his daughter been... um..." He flushed darkly looked away. _

_"Been what?" She teased, smirking at him. _

_"Well... ah... You know..." Lucas blushed harder. _

_Jayde laughed at his discomfort. "We'll just have to be more careful next time."_

_"Next time?" He whipped head back to face her with wide eyes._

_"Yes, Lucas, there will be a next time." She grinned mischievously, "unless you don't want there to be." _

_"No... I... uh that's not what I meant. I do, just... a little gun shy at the moment." He finally admitted. _

_Jayde leaned in close and kissed him gently, "I'll see what I can do to get you over that."_

Lucas smiled at the recent memory, and he was still grinning when the car came to stop in front of the house. He hoisted himself out of the car and leaned against it, waiting for Tim to hand him the crutches from the trunk. "Thank you," he muttered, awkwardly fitting them under his arms. Tim nodded once, still silent, and led him into the house.

As soon as he entered, Lucas forgot the tense ride and started to laugh. Streamers hung from every possible surface and balloons bounced on the ceiling, glowing strangely. There was a large sign attached to one walls that simply read: "Good job on not dying!" Decorated with a blonde stick figure giving the middle finger to a gravestone.

"You didn't have to do all this." He protested feebly, shaking his head. "But thanks, guys."

Jayde skipped up to him and hugged him tightly. "After all the drama of the last week, we just wanted a little fun. Do you like it?"

"I love it," he answered wrapping one arm around her.

Willow frowned at one of the balloons that dared to drift from ceiling. She pointed a finger, and after muttering a short incantation, it floated back up, pulsing with light. "It's the least that we could do."

Anya came bounding into the living room, carrying two bottles of beer. "I did the banner, sort of a special thank you making sure I exist now. I wanted to give you what I normally give Xander as thanks, but he said no."

"I... I... think that's probably a good idea." Lucas stammered, turning red.

Xander crossed the room with an annoyed expression. "Remember that talk about things we don't bring up with company? And the other one about offering certain things?"

"But he did something special, when you do something special, I always..." She started to argue.

"We have cake!" Dawn interrupted her before she get further.

"And lots of good food too." Tara added, "you'll need protein to get your iron back."

"Pizza?" Lucas asked hopefully.

Dawn snorted, "of course there's pizza, it's a party."

Jayde took his arm, "come on, why don't we get your strength back..." She smiled at him roguishly.

"Um... yeah, let's eat." He blushed again.

Anya tried to hand Lucas a bottle as he passed her. "Beer?"

He saw Tim narrow his eyes and bite his tongue as he marched by. "Uh... no, but thanks. Hold on to it for a few years, I'm not quite old enough."

* * *

Lucas leaned back in the chair patting his stomach. "Yeah, I think that was enough."

"I should hope so," Willow laughed. "You ate a half pizza yourself, and three pieces of cake."

He shrugged, "everyone keeps telling me I have to heal. Pizza is known for it's healing abilities."

"That doesn't sound accurate for some reason." Dawn responded wryly.

"Well, sleep is known to help." Jayde said, standing and handing Lucas his crutches. "Come on."

He groaned, "I slept at the hospital, and it's going to take me all night to get up the stairs."

"You aren't going upstairs, you get the couch until your leg is better." Willow informed him. "I'll see about speeding up the process tomorrow, I just have to be careful since it's so deep. Then we'll see about dismantling Warren's computer, I convinced the police to leave it alone."

Lucas nodded, "what about Dr. Kerchum? Has there been any sign of him? He might be able to use it against us."

"No sign, and I locked everyone out of the warehouse." Willow said with pride, "but the actual computer system is a little beyond me. I wanted to wait for you."

"Yeah ok, no problem." He paused and glanced at Tim, "wait, the couch? Where are you sleeping?"

"Basement." He replied shortly, and turned to leave the room.

"Where's Spike then?" The kitchen fell completely silent when Tim spun back around to level a cold stare at Lucas. "What did you do, Tim?"

"Nothing," Xander answered for him, "yet."

Tim raised his chin and something dark passed between Xander and himself. "We told him if he ever showed his face around here, we would destroy him."

"What gives you that right?" Lucas voice started to raise.

"I am currently your commanding officer, Lucas, you agreed to that." Tim snapped back.

"Yeah, when you weren't doing something stupid!" Lucas took a step forward with out his crutches, and grimaced when his leg twinged at him. He was to angry to care, or notice the worried expressions around him. "I don't really give a damn if you don't like the way we did it, but he saved my life."

Xander stood, and came between them. "You don't understand what Spike is."

"A vampire? A demon? Yeah I got that. I figured that out all by myself. It doesn't matter, he helped me when you couldn't. You should be freaking thanking him and throwing him a party, not me."

"He's not a hero." Xander growled, "don't ever think that he is."

"And you are?" Lucas spat, clenching his fists.

Xander flinched, and came closer, until they were face to face. "I might not have super powers, but I do what I can. I've never killed people, Spike has. And you just let that monster drink your blood, like it was nothing. You think we should be happy about that?"

"You are such a hypocrite." Lucas yelled, "how many people has Anya killed? You don't have a problem with her."

"That's different." Xander hissed, turning red and shaking with rage. "She's changed."

"Yeah, so has Spike."

He scoffed, "just because of that damn chip."

"What's the difference? A chip or a soul?" Lucas' voice became quietly dangerous.

Tim stepped up, "there's a difference."

"Really?" Lucas said with mock surprise, "because I've seen people with souls do some pretty shitty things to other people. Present company included."

"Watch it." Xander growled, his teeth clenched tightly.

Lucas laughed harshly in his face. "Or what? Are you going to send me away because you don't like how I act? My dad tried that already, didn't change anything." He shook his head, fully knowing he was crossing lines, but far too angry to care. "You know, it's funny, the last week, I've been worrying about how I may not the person you think I am. And now, I'm just wondering if _you're_ the person _you_ think you are." He spun on his heel and limped from the room. Everyone remaining stared in shocked silence as they heard the front door slam behind him.


	29. Chapter 29

Lucas leaned against the outside wall of the house and let his knees drop him to sitting position on the porch. He wrapped his arms around his shins and buried his face. "Great job, idiot. Blow up and get everyone pissed at you." He muttered to himself. He felt ashamed of his outburst, but a certain degree of righteous anger burned brighter.

Feeling moisture under one forearm, he lifted it and looked at his pant leg. There was a dark red stain spreading over his thigh. "Awesome, now I'm going to bleed to death, and they probably won't care." Lucas hid his face again, and resumed his pity party.

He heard the door open after a few minutes, but didn't look up. He wasn't willing to talk to anyone just yet.

"Interested in that beer now?" Anya's voice shocked him into lifting his head and looking at her.

He sighed, "no, I better not. I'm sorry for calling you a killer, that wasn't really fair."

Anya sat next to him and took a pull off the bottle. "No it is. I've killed lots of times, but they deserved it." She tilted her head, "I still have some friends in the business if you're interested." Lucas' eyes opened wide. "Not to kill anyone, but maybe a few boils…"

He chuckled dryly, "nah, that will probably just get me in more trouble." Lucas chewed his lip for a while. "I think I really screwed up in there. I just don't understand why Xander and Tim hate him so much. We did what we had to."

"Humans are strange sometimes. I've been one for a few years now, and I still don't understand some of the things they do at all." She shrugged nonchalantly.

"I've been one my whole life and still don't get them."

Anya nodded, and watched some people walk by. "Maybe you should hang out with more demons, all we... all _they_ want is the four f's"

"The four f's? Do I even want to know?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Fighting, feeding, fleeing, and... uh... mating."

Lucas barked out a short laugh. "That's not so different than humans, we just pretend to think about more."

"Demons don't really get stuck in their own heads like people do. Well, there is this one species..." Anya started thoughtfully.

"Does Xander get stuck in his own head?"

"No, Xander gets stuck in his own heart."

"How do you mean?"

Anya paused, "you were right about him playing the hero. It isn't an ego thing, he just thinks he has to protect everyone. I think Tim feels the same way. Even when they're scared they get in the thick of things."

Lucas groaned and leaned back against the wall. "I guess I should go apologize."

"I wouldn't." Anya shook her head.

"Really? Why not?"

Anya stared into the gathering darkness before answering. "Because, you were right." Lucas blinked in surprise, "I love all of them, but they can be hypocrites sometimes."

"How?"

"It's just like thing with Spike. They're ok befriending demons and using dark magic to get help or do what they want, but when someone crosses some imaginary line and reminds them what they're playing with, they freak." She stated it so matter-of-factly, Lucas could only look at her open mouthed.

When he was finally able to find his voice, Lucas sighed again. "So what do I do?"

"You should probably have Willow look at your leg first." She nodded to blood stain, "something without as much restraint as Spike may smell it and want a bite. Then… nothing. They're in the wrong, let them deal with it."

He wrinkled his face, "I'm not very good that."

Anya smirked at him, "I thought you were stubborn."

"Yeah," he laughed, "I guess I am, but this is different. I don't like feeling like I may have hurt them."

"I'd call it a wakeup call." She stood, and offered Lucas a hand. He accepted it and with a pained grunt, he rose as well. "And if that means Xander will think twice before racing into the next fight, I'll be grateful."

Leaning on her shoulder, Lucas limped inside, wincing. Willow was waiting nervously for him in the living room. When she saw the blood spreading over his leg, she pointed into the kitchen. "Come on, I'll get you patched up."

"Where is everyone?" He asked, easing into the chair he had stormed from previously.

"I sent them away." Willow blew out a frustrated breath, and crossing her arms. "Tim and Xander are grounded for being jerks."

"I bet that went over well." Lucas chuckled dryly.

She shrugged, "even they know better than to argue with a pissed off woman." Willow pointed at his leg. "I'll need your pants off."

He sighed and started to remove them, while blushing. "Why didn't anyone tell me it's embarrass Lucas day? I would have stayed in the hospital."

Willow summoned a first aid kit with a wave of her hand and knelt down beside him. "Trust me you don't have anything I'm interested in."

"How mad are they?" Lucas asked through gritted teeth as she cleaned up the wound.

"They aren't. They feel like dipshits. I may have yelled at them for a while." She carefully placed both hands on either side of the injury. "Hold still, I wanted to wait to do this, but you popped a few stitches."

Lucas closed his eyes tightly and pretended he was anywhere else and there was no searing pain bothering him. Within seconds, Willow sat back on her heels and rewrapped the leg. "Ok, it's mostly healed, but it might split again." She informed him sternly.

"Yeah, I get it. I'll go lay down and be good." He sighed, and grudgingly accepted his crutches from her before leaving the room.

Lucas rolled on the couch, realizing that he was in fact very tired, and nodded a goodnight to Willow when she turned off the light and jogged upstairs. He stretched out his legs, satisfied that his thigh no longer hurt, even if the muscle was still feeling tight. Within minutes he was sleeping.

He didn't know how long he was out, perhaps only an hour, when he heard a noise beside him. Lucas slowly turned his head and blinked in the near darkness. "Jayde? Xander?" He whispered, pushing himself up. "Who's there?"

Instead of an answer, a strong hand clamped over this mouth, and an arm looped around his waist, pinning his arms down. He was easily lifted to standing, and dragged away from the couch. Lucas was dazed by the sudden attack, but started to kick at whatever was around him. His foot connected with the small coffee table, sending it crashing to the floor. The hand moved up an inch, and covered his nose as well.

Lucas tried to scream, but he was losing oxygen quickly and seeing spots floating in front of his eyes. He barely noticed when the cool night air touched his skin, but when he saw a large white van glowing in the moonlight, he started fighting desperately again. His heel came in sharp contact with a shin, and his captor stumbled, loosening his hold.

Sucking in a breath, Lucas screamed, "let me go, damn it!" He twisted his head around and caught sight of the person holding him. All the fight went out of him immediately. "What the hell Spike? You scared me half to death." He whispered now, mindful of the sleeping people in the house ten feet away.

"Sorry, kid, I had to." Spike let go of his torso, but kept a tight hand on Lucas shoulder, steering him to the van.

"What's going on? Did you find Dr. Kerchum?"

There was a pause, "yeah, you could say that." Spike opened the back door of the van, "get in."

Lucas put one foot on the bumper but stopped, an uneasy feeling tightened in his gut. Seeing the back of the van was separated by a thick wire mesh, only added to it. "Wait, shouldn't we get the others? This…" A noise in the driver's seat caught his attention.

"Come on Mr. Wolenczak, we have a schedule to keep."

"I'm sorry, Lucas." Spike muttered behind him. "He's going to take out the bloody chip finally. I… I have to get it out."

Lucas stared at Dr. Kerchum, horrorstruck. "No… you can't."

Spike gritted his teeth and shoved Lucas inside, he held his head silently for a moment, then climbed in behind the teen. "I fought for you." Lucas hissed angrily. "I screamed at my friends to defend you… and you… you pull this shit."

"Yeah, well, don't forget what I am." Spike pulled a length of rope from the corner of the van, as the vehicle pulled away from the house. He leveled a stare at Lucas. "Don't fight, I don't fancy another headache, and if I have to hurt you, I'll just want to make it worth my pain."

Lucas swallowed, and fought the fear that was crawling up his belly. "Go to hell."

"I keep telling you, I don't want to hurt you. When will you believe that?" Spike grabbed his wrists and started lopping one end of the rope around them.

"Maybe when you aren't aiding in my kidnapping." Lucas spat back, incredulous that he was even being asked a question like that. He started to pull his hands back, but Spike's grip was too tight.

Spike leaned close and attached the rope to Lucas' ankles, effectively hogtieing him. He turned his head and after flicking an eye to Dr. Kerchum, whispered. "You just need to do as you're told."


	30. Chapter 30

Tara sat up in the bed, startling Willow awake. "What is it, baby?"

"I… I'm not sure." She said hesitantly, slipping out of bed and causally crossing to the doorway. "I thought I heard something fall or break."

"It was probably just someone tripping over something, maybe Lucas got up." Willow yawned, and laid her head back down. "We upped our protection spells yesterday, no one can get in that we don't want." She smiled sleepily, "come back to bed."

Tara looked back at her doubtfully. "Ok… you're probably right. Dawn might just raiding the…" she was cut of by a scream, and Willow jumped up, joining her girlfriend at the door.

Jayde ran past, followed closely by Dawn, and skidded to a stop, seeing they were awake. "I think that was Lucas." The four women took off down the stairs, and nearly knocked Tim down as he rounded the corner.

"Lucas is gone, it looks like there was a struggle." He informed them breathlessly. "A van just pulled out, but I couldn't see any plates."

"I'll call Xander," Willow said, grabbing her phone out of her purse hanging by the door. She nodded to Tara, "call Spike, maybe he knows something."

* * *

Spike groaned and reached into his pocket, leaning away from Lucas. When saw the number lighting up on the phone in his hand, he placed one finger across his lips. "Yeah, what'd you want?" He asked, after flipping it open. Lucas could hear a muffled question containing his own name. "No, haven't heard a thing."

He slowly started to fill up his lungs, hoping Spike wouldn't notice the action. A hand slapping over his mouth proved him wrong. Going for broke, he started yelling through the fingers. Spike tightened his grip over Lucas' chin and glared, still talking. "Yeah, I'll keep an ear out." He snapped the phone closed, and removed the hand. "Can't you listen to anyone?"

"Not assholes," Lucas growled, breathing heavily in fury.

Spike snorted, "the world is full of assholes, kid. You should have learned that by now."

Lucas fell into a sullen silence and looked away from the vampire. Not willing to admit how much he was wounded by his actions. The van came to a stop, and Lucas felt his heart speed up. Still not saying a word, he watched Kerchum activate the assist to lower his wheelchair to the ground.

As soon as the driver's door slammed closed, Spike grabbed his chin, forcing Lucas to look at him. "I meant what I said, I don't want to hurt you, and you need to do as you're told."

"It's not really in my nature."

Spike let him go and ran a hand through his hair. "Damn it, just listen for once… forget your bloody pride and stay alive."

"Why do you care?" Lucas snarled, "why did you get me out of trouble before if you were just going to… betray me." His voice cracked, and he turned his head away hurriedly.

"You don't understand…" Spike started before the door behind him opened.

"Come on boys, we're here." Kerchum's arrogant voice informed them. He spun his chair around and swiftly rolled away.

Spike hosted Lucas up by the arm, and bent, slinging him over his shoulder. Lucas struggled in pure indignation, but then slumped in defeat. Even if he could get out of the iron grip of the vampire, he couldn't run, and he no idea where he was.

"As soon as I can, I will kill you." He hissed into Spike's back.

"You'll try, I don't doubt that." Spike chuckled grimly. "I would probably want to do the same in your shoes."

Spike carried him into a building, and set him down on a chair. Lucas looked around in trepidation, and realized he was in a medical office. Dr. Kerchum waited until he saw his surroundings, and wheeled to him. "Now, I thought I might give you a chance to reconsider your position."

"It's the same." He growled, bringing his knees up to his chest. The ropes he was tied with weren't painfully tight, but uncomfortable enough that he couldn't sit properly. Hugging his legs always brought him a measure of security, and he needed it at the moment.

Kerchum regarded him for a few moments, Lucas took a deep breath. "I'm not gonna help you torture people. I… I don't care what you do to me." He was shaking, but managed to keep his voice level.

"It isn't torture, Lucas." Kerchum explained in a deceptively soft voice. "It's about controlling and training them. And they aren't exactly people."

"Demons then, I've met a few now. Some of them are better than humans." He cast a baleful look to Spike. "I still wouldn't want to torture them." Lucas sighed, "and I still don't understand why you want me to help so much."

"No, not demons, I've taken another path. An old friend has asked my assistance in building a hybrid, free of disease, and stronger than an average human. It's similar to the work I have ready done, so it will be an easy transition." He smiled at Lucas' confused expression. "We will always need armies, we are just looking for a way to eliminate the heartache of losing someone to war."

Lucas' breath got stuck in his throat, "you're making G.E.L.F.'s." He finally wheezed in horror.

"Ah, yes, I forget you are from the future. I will be helping, but he's mostly interested in the defenses I've made for myself. He believes it can used to keep them in line if need be. So you know about the G.E.L.F's?" Kerchum's eyes lit up with excitement. "Then there is no reason to deny me, we were successful."

"But… I don't know much about them other than what we learned in school." Lucas shook his head, disturbed at the thought that he might be part of what many people believed was a sin against nature.

"Yes," Dr. Kerchum nodded, "but now that I've lost Warren, I'll need some help. And from what he's told me about his neural interface invention, you could make it work, it's your choice. I am very intrigued by what it can do."

Lucas blinked in utter amazement. "So, I can either help you design, and beat into submission a new race that is only bred to die, or build the machine that nearly killed me?" He scoffed, and rubbed his face, angling his head at the doctor. "What if I say no? To both?"

"Lucas, I've been around longer than you, even in this time. So trust me when I say, don't say no. You'll only agree to help me in the end, but you won't be of much use to anyone if you're utterly broken…"

* * *

Tara slowly put the phone down, looking troubled. "What did he say?" Tim asked, seeing her face and crossing the room to her.

"He said he hadn't heard anything but..." she hesitated, "do you think he's still mad? He just sounded strange, and I don't think he was alone. If he likes Lucas, he should be just worried as we are." She finished slowly, looking uneasy.

"Would have done something to get back us?" Tim asked quietly. "For what Xander and I did?"

Willow snapped her phone closed and joined them. "They're on the way... What? What did Spike say?"

Instead of answering her, Tim studied Tara. "I... I don't know."

"Maybe Spike just went somewhere... Took him out for some fun without us? Lucas is still limping, he could have knocked over the table, or maybe even Spike?" He asked optimistically.

Tara looked at the table and the mess of blankets, "he's not that clumsy. They wouldn't have just left like that. He knows we'd be worried even if he's mad."

Jayde nodded, "Lucas wouldn't do that either."

Tim took a breath and turned to Willow. "Is your tracker spell still working? Can you get a read on him?"

She nodded, "it's weak, but still there." Willow closed her eyes tightly and swayed on the spot, slumping to her knees. "Oh!" She pushed away the hands that reached for her. "Sorry, it... it was just more powerful than I expected."

"So know where he is?" Jayde asked with a hopeful smile.

Willow shook her head, blinking back tears. "No, I'm sorry. He's... All I'm getting is that he's just absolutely terrified..."

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry, went a little ELF. Not sure how that happened...**


	31. Chapter 31

Lucas clenched his eyes shut against the blinding light shining down on him, huddled on the floor. Again and again he desperately tried to figure out a way out of his situation, but his head pounding too badly for any coherent thoughts to come through. He didn't have any valid way of knowing how long it had been since he had been there, but judging by his cramping stomach and exhaustion, he guessed at least three days had past.

All he had seen in that time was the white room he resided in and the next larger area. There was rudimentary medical equipment set up, and as much as he tried not to think about it, Lucas had the impression some of it would be used on him sooner or later. He knew what they were doing to him, and he knew what they planned to do. Dr. Kerchum had explained it all in vivid detail. Lucas was currently in stage one of what the good doctor called "the steps to complete submission." Several days of mental torment to soften his resistance was just the beginning. If he wasn't ready to do as he was told, Lucas would go on to experience physical pain and then finally the electric jolts Willow had nearly died from.

He had been pulled from the room numerous times and screamed at to follow orders by different people, while they psychically menaced him in various ways. Some of the times, they would shake him, or wind up to punch or slap him, while he was held down. Making him feel completely defenseless without actually injuring him. No one had touched him with the exception of escorting him, and restraining him, but he still flinched away when anyone came close. Lucas held on to what Xander had told him, he hadn't broken under Stark, he hadn't given her what she wanted. But that was a year in his future, and under different circumstances. Here, and now, he was quickly losing his grip.

Although Lucas knew he would enter and leave through the same door every time, the rooms would look different, throwing him into a state of confusion. Furniture was moved, added and removed every time. Even his holding cell started with the basic necessities, now it was bare. Everything kept changing around him, including his abusers, they never seemed to be same individuals. Only Dr. Kerchum's calm voice in the background was constant. Even Spike was gone. He was there with an impassive expression on his face for the first few times, but then disappeared.

Lucas choked back sobs when he thought about his last ray of hope vanishing. Spike was the only one who knew where he was and what they were doing to him. Even his rage at being betrayed vanished when he begged the vampire for help.

He hadn't been allowed any food and barely any fluids. When he would finally break down and scream back at the men holding him, or even just cry, he received a small glass of water and was brought back to the room. He realized he was being trained to give them the responses they wanted, but his psyche was breaking, and he knew no other way to react. At first, he tried ignoring them, but soft whimpers for help broke from his lips. He called for Captain Bridger, Ben, Tim, Xander, and even his father to save him. When he did that, he was mocked and told no one would bother to save him. He started to believe it all too soon. The last time he had seen his friends, he had yelled at them and insulted them. Lucas held no hope they would come running for him.

He rubbed at his scratchy eyes. It would have been nearly impossible to sleep in the brightly lit room, but he had almost managed a few times. Whenever he calmed his breathing and heartbeat enough to relax, a loud alarm would blare, startling him fully awake. Now, a new noise made Lucas raise his head, and squint towards the door.

Loud arguing could be heard on the other side. Lucas strained his ears, but his mind was too muddled to make sense of what he was hearing. Once voice was raising even louder, and Lucas was amazed to catch Spike's distinctive accent cutting through the babble.

The door burst open, and Lucas cringed back from the grasping hands. He was roughly hauled to feet and all but dragged into the next room. The competitively dim light was a relief to his eyes, but his jackhammering heart didn't give him time to enjoy it. He twisted his restraints unconsciously, still the same rope Spike used to bind him. It had already proved to be unbreakable, but some part of him was still trying.

Spike waiting until Lucas was pushed into a chair in front of him, and inspected him closely. Lucas didn't lift his head or even bother looking in his direction. He afraid to show the vampire how close he was to breaking, and didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing it in person. Spike finally forced his head up and took in Lucas appearance with a quick appraisal. As soon as Spike removed his hand, his head dropped again, and he winced at every heavy foot fall when Spike stormed to confront Dr. Kerchum.

They began a heated, but whispered argument. "You're killing him." He said harshly, gripping his hands into tight fists. "This bloody well was not part of the deal."

Kerchum shrugged, "I told you it would take some convincing."

"This is not convincing! This is... he's just a kid. I won't let you do this."

Dr. Kerchum folded his hands across his chest, and smiled coldly. "You have no more say in it. I'll hold up my end the bargain. As soon as he is completely mine, you chip will be removed."

"And if he doesn't cooperate? He already looks half crazed, he won't be any good to you lot."

The smile grew larger, "I'll still remove the chip, his stubbornness is no fault of your's. And then he can be your first real meal if you like. It's rather poetic really, he was willing to let you bite him before, and now he won't be able to stop you."

Lucas listened to the conversation, barely breathing. What he heard next made him wish he back in his cell or only being screamed at again. "And if he loses his mind, well, you may even want to turn him. That would be an interesting experiment in itself."

"I've done that, thank you." Spike growled, "one mad whelp was enough to handle."

"Your choice of course." Dr. Kerchum said with a dismissive wave. "I just hate to waste good talent."

Lucas raised his head and met the vampire's eyes for the first time on his own accord. He couldn't bring himself to voice his plea, but Spike clearly read it in his haggard face. "Let me talk to the boy, alone." He said after breaking the gaze and turning back to Kerchum. "Maybe I can help him from being such... a waste." His tone became mocking and it earned him a sharp look from the doctor.

"Fine," he snapped, "you have five minutes." Dr. Kerchum wheeled away, waving two guards standing on either side of the door to join him.

Spike waited until they left, and walked to a sink in the room. He filled a large glass full of water and handed it Lucas. The teen took it without responding, and downed it like a dying man. After he got his breath back, he stared at Spike. "Why?" His voice rasped out.

"Why did I sell you out? Or why I am here?"

"Both."

Spike sighed and took the glass from him, refilling it. "Me being a selfish asshole is the current wager." Lucas accepted the water again and sipped at it slowly.

"Yeah, I figured that out."

"I'm sorry, if it helps." Spike offered half halfheartedly, crouching down beside him.

"It doesn't. How do you plan to talk me into working with him? Be nice for a couple minutes and hope I'll do you a solid?" Lucas glared at him.

Spike shook his head. "I don't know. I... I guess I thought if you could understand my side of it..."

"Your side?!" Lucas started to yell, "you're a worse monster than he is! What, you can't eat your favorite food so you..."

Spike silenced him with one hand raised, cocking his head to the door. He hastily took the water glass back, and started to stand. Lucas grabbed his wrist with a strength that surprised the vampire. "Please," he whispered, as the doorknob started to turn. "Tell them where I am."

Spike pulled away and stood. "It won't matter, no one can get in here. Just do as you're told and stay alive." He turned his back on Lucas as the two guards hurried inside.

Lucas struggled to stand, shaking them off when they grabbed for him. "You could have killed me, but you didn't. That was more than the chip, Spike!" He aimed a hobbled kick at one of men trying to hold him back.

Spike was quickly walking out of the room as Lucas was thrown down on the ground. He gasped as the air was knocked out of him. Sucking in a breath, he managed to throw one last barb as they dragged him back to his cell. "I won't give him what he wants, and he'll never hold up his side of your deal! He'll just kill us both."


	32. Chapter 32

**Author's Note: Why didn't anyone tell me I was spelling Kertchum's name wrong? Sorry! It'll be right from here on out.**

* * *

Willow whimpered and moaned in her drug induced sleep. Dawn watched her with concern, biting back what she wanted to ask. She heard a sniffle, and looked up to see Jayde staring at the small witch, the same question mirrored in her eyes.

The group had searched every lead they could find, questioning demons and humans alike. No one knew anything. They spent the first day breaking into the magically protected properties, but most were empty, while the others showed no sign of the missing teen. Spike was nowhere to be found, and they had little doubt in their minds that he had something to do with Lucas' disappearance.

By the second day, everyone was so high strung and worn out, Tara preformed a sleeping spell on the entire household so they could get some rest. And only after Willow woke them all, screaming, did they decide to take a more medical route for her. She was nearly incapacitated by the flashes of emotions she randomly received from Lucas. She knew he wasn't in extreme pain, but couldn't answer them when they asked what he was going through, and soon took on a manic expression from the strain.

She became lucid only long enough to take in some water, but refused all food before lapsing back into a near catatonic state. Xander was nursing a black eye from when he tried to stop her from blindly running from the room, gripped in a terror that wasn't her's. They were taking turns, in twos or more, to watch, and possibly restrain her if the need arose again.

"What are they doing him?" Anya asked, watching Willow twist on the couch. A wave of emotion crashed over Jayde when she finally heard the words she wanted to ask. She hurried from the room, tears rolling down her face.

Tim caught her in his arms as she rushed past him in the kitchen. "We'll find him." He promised as the girl sobbed on his chest.

"How? It's been three days, and we've tried everything, it's like he's dead…" She choked on the last word, shocked that she had had even given it a voice.

"Willow said he isn't being hurt, she'd be able to feel that." Tim tried to console her.

"Then what could they be doing? She can't even control herself when the flashes come… What is it like for him?"

* * *

Lucas beat his fists on the door, screaming obscenities through it and at the small camera perched in the corner of the room. His fury gave him a burst of adrenalin, but soon he slid down to the floor leaning against the wall. "I'm not going to give in. I... I can't..." He tried to convince himself, breathing raggedly.

His eyelids started to droop several times, but would spring open, expecting the sound of the alarm. He groaned when he realized he was unwillingly submitting to his training. After an hour of no contact from the outside, his body finally over took his mind, and he fell asleep, curled in a ball.

The door clicked open, and Lucas jerked upright, trying to clear his eyes and mind. He scrambled backwards as two men came inside, followed by Dr. Kertchum. Lucas was sure he was in for a horrible punishment after what happened with Spike and how he had fought with the men trying to control him.

The silent guards pushed him flat on the floor and held him down by the shoulders. Lucas was too weak to put up a fight, and they both outweighed him by at least one hundred pounds. One carefully took his hands and the other cut off the rope from his wrists and ankles. He tried to pull away once he was free, but they held him firmly in place without hurting him.

Lucas blankly looked at the stripes worn into his skin by his struggles. He knew they probably hurt, but was feeling so disconnected at the moment, he couldn't be sure. The men softly applied an ointment to the scraps, causing them to sting slightly then feel cool, before letting him up. "Thanks," Lucas whispered, bringing his knees to his chest. He was very grateful for the gesture, but confused and nervous as to what it might mean.

He was lifted to his feet, and again, it was done very gently and at his own speed. "Come with me Mr. Wolenczak, please." Kertchum hooked a finger and wheeled away. Lucas followed, stumbling weakly but obediently, trying to figure out what could be going on.

He was led to a new room, outfitted like a very small dorm. A cot with blankets against a wall, a miniature refrigerator, and privacy screen hiding a sink and toilet. One more thing attracted his attention, but he tried to ignore it, having learned his lesson with Warren. A state of the art laptop sat closed on a desk.

"What is all this?" Lucas finally asked, apprehensively. His mind flickered to all the times his surroundings had been changed to keep him unbalanced, and only saw what could be taken away from him.

Dr. Kertchum watched him survey the room with a muted smile. "I thought you might be happier here."

"But why would you do this for me?"

"You can thank Spike. He... expressed concern for your condition." He held up a thermos and paper bag. "I wanted to let you sleep longer, but was eager to move you, and give you this."

Lucas only stared at his offerings. "How long was I out?"

"A few hours, and you can sleep more if you like, but eat first." He tried to hand him the objects, but Lucas stepped back warily.

"What is it?"

Kertchum sighed, "it's just chicken broth and some bread rolls. There's more food in the fridge, but I want you to make sure this stays down first."

"You... you made me soup?" Lucas asked incredulously. "Did you lace it with hallucinogens or something?"

"No, this is no trick." Lucas still stared at him, not moving. Dr. Kertchum poured a small measure into the lid and made a show of drinking it himself. "See? It's safe."

His stomach growled when the scent hit him, and Lucas hesitantly stepped forward, taking it. "Thank you, um... sir."

"You are very welcome, but please, call me Russ." He smiled again, and turned to leave. "Get some rest, Spike will certainly be back in a few hours to check on you."

The door closed behind him, and Lucas just looked at it, dumbfounded. He knew this was probably part of a game, his stomach overrode his caution, and tore open the bag. He ate a roll in two bites and washed down with the soup. Still devouring the food, he looked the room over. A small camera watched him from a high corner, but he ignored it.

The gnawing hunger subsided somewhat, and he checked out the refrigerator. It was stocked full with cold cuts, bread, soda, and vegetables, among a few other things. All food what could be made without much prep and no actual cooking. Lucas reached for a bag of cookies, but Kertchum's order rang in his mind and he closed the door empty handed.

He finally turned to the computer, and eyed the camera warily as he approached it. Cringing, expecting some kind of retribution, he opened it and turned it on. A normal looking screen blinked to life. One click brought up a browser page, but it only held a warning of not being connected. "Didn't think it would be that easy." He muttered to himself and whomever may be watching.

"Come on _Russ,_ you can't spring for wifi in your torture chamber?" Lucas grumbled, now looking straight at the camera. "Or is this some kind of test to see what I can do?" He slammed the computer closed and sat on the bed in irritation.

He curled on his side with his hands propping up his head out of habit. Lucas laughed darkly at himself when he recognized what he was doing, and stretched out. "Three days tied up and you forget how to sleep like a normal person." After fluffing up the pillow under his head, he expected to drift off, but the short sleep had gotten, combined with some food in his stomach made him feel stronger and restless.

"Ok, why don't I check out his stupid test." Lucas muttered, eyeing the computer sitting innocently on the desk. He cracked a soda and took a seat, opening the laptop. The same screen greeting him, and instead of trying a browser, Lucas dug into the software. There was almost nothing past the factory settings saved on the hard drive, and nothing was password protected.

He searched for a way to connect to the outside world, but the computer wasn't outfitted with a modem. "So what am I supposed to do with this? Write my memoirs?" Lucas sighed, and was about to close the machine down again, but a file on the desktop caught his attention.

Clicking the mouse, his eyes went wide at what he saw. The design plans for the neural interface was spread out in front of him. "Really? This is your master plan, Russ? Make me so bored I work on the damn thing?"

Lucas glared at it in fury for few seconds, debating if he should just throw the computer across the room. His angry expression to one of puzzlement and he zoomed in on one part of the design. "Why did he put a node there and not on the occipital lobe? It wouldn't have worked as well on the frontal. They must have fixed it... What else changed?" He pulled open a drawer on the desk and was rewarded with what he was looking for. A thick notepad started to fill with notes as he muttered to himself.


	33. Chapter 33

As Lucas was shredding the last of his notes into the toilet, there was a knock on the door. He flushed it and stepped back, trying to look innocent. "Um, yeah? I can't really open it for you."

The door slid open, and Spike stepped in, looking around. "New digs?"

"You could say that, and I guess I have you to thank for it." Lucas shrugged wearily, "so, thanks, I guess." He sat at the desk again, typing.

"What're you doing?" Spike asked looking over his shoulder.

Lucas entered one last string of commands, and turned off the system. "Working."

"So you're alright with helping him now?"

"Nope, I had to fix problems I found with the design, they were driving me crazy. But he won't see it until he lets me go." Lucas smiled triumphantly.

Spike raised an eyebrow, "does he know that yet?"

"I told the camera, not my problem if he wasn't watching." He answered with a smug tone, feeling more confident than he had in days now that he had something to work with. "No one has been back since they brought me in here."

"How are you planning to keep him from getting it?" Spike asked quizzically, concerned by his reckless attitude. He wasn't sure if the young man actually had a workable plan or if he losing his mind.

Lucas grinned, "you keep saying I forget what you are, did you forget what I am? The info is locked down tight, if anyone tries to get it without me, it's programmed to erase automatically."

"Don't make him mad, Lucas. It isn't worth it." Spike sighed as he watched the blonde cross to the bed and take a seat.

Lucas snorted, "I don't think it matters. I've already figured out he doesn't like me very much." He yawned and reached for his soda, taking a swig.

"Did they let you sleep?"

The concern in Spike's voice would have made Lucas laugh in light of the situation, but he just didn't have the energy. "Yeah, some, and I ate. I might need more of both though." He blinked rapidly, and leaned on the wall.

"I didn't know..." Spike started, then grimaced. "I know that's a shit excuse, but I want to tell you, I didn't know what he'd do to you."

Lucas nodded, his eyes slowly closing. He shook his head and rubbed his forehead before responding. "Yeah, I know."

"I didn't think you'd fight him like this either." Spike studied him, noting the overly thin face and glazed expression.

Lucas didn't answer right away, trying to put his thoughts in order despite his sleep deprived state. "I have to."

"Bloody hell, can't you just forget your honor for once and do what he wants?"

He blinked again, giving Spike an intense but exhausted look. "No, too many people will be hurt. If all I can do is stand my ground, I have to try." His eyes started to close, and stayed closed. He murmured, "you can still fix it."

Spike shook his head, "I think it's a bit late for all that. Not even Buffy could get you out of here, kid." Lucas didn't respond, but his head tilted to the side as he began breathing slowly and deeply. Spike sighed and leaned over to carefully pull the teen flat on the bed. "I'll see what I can do." He whispered, almost silently, before leaving.

Dr. Kertchum was waiting for him in main room. "Satisfied now?"

Spike barely kept his anger in check. "Almost... He still won't play nice, you know."

"He will eventually," Kertchum seemed unfazed by the flashes of rage he saw. "Unless something changes, I'll give him some time to get healthy again, then we go to step two." He smiled cruelly, "I warned him, but the boy won't know what hit him."

A loud alarm made Lucas jerk awake. "Oh come on, not this again." He groaned and rubbed his eyes. He wasn't surprised to see Spike gone, but wondered how long he had been asleep.

Standing and stretching, he realized the laptop was missing from it's place on the desk. "Well, I guess that explains the rude wake up call." Lucas shrugged, "can't get in much more trouble." He crossed to the fridge and pulled it open, looking for a snack. It was completely bare, "damn it, I knew I should have had more."

Sighing, he used the sink to fill his growling stomach with water, and then sat on the bed, staring at the camera. "So, now what Russ?"

In response, the door swung open, revealing the doctor and two of his henchmen. Lucas jumped up from the bed and retreated backwards until he hit the wall, flinching. He hadn't expected a response so soon, and he saw made him want to cover his head and shut everything out like a small child.

The expression on Kertchum's face sent a bolt of pure fear through Lucas' stomach. He didn't look enraged, or even annoyed. His face was blank and impassive, an expression Lucas had always imagined a serial killer to wear while selecting a victim. "Good evening."

Lucas frantically looked for a way out, but only slumped, defeated, knowing he was helpless. "What do you want?"

Kertchum drummed his fingers on the laptop sitting in his lap. "Is this how you repay my kindness, Mr. Wolenczak? I gave you food and a place to sleep, and you play games. Do I have to explain more of what will happen if you continue refusing me?" His voice was quiet, but laced with anger.

"I... I..." Lucas stammered, trying to find an answer to appease the man. He swallowed and looked down at his feet, something finally breaking deep inside of himself. "I'm sorry, I just want to go home and I thought I could trade you for the designs."

Dr. Kertchum chuckled dryly at the contrite teen. "You seem to still believe you have some control over the situation. As soon as you stop thinking like that, the happier we will all be. And just think how much harder it will be to work when you are missing a hand."

"Yes, sir." Lucas whispered, still not lifting his head. "I'll fix it, but it'll take some time to disable the virus."

"You have two hours." Kertchum handed him the computer. "Any longer... Well, maybe we can work something out that doesn't involve quite so much flesh."

Lucas took the laptop, shaking so badly he nearly dropped it. "Yes, sir. I'm sorry." He whispered again, too terrified to meet his eyes.

"I'll be back, and you might even get to have a bunk mate."

He jerked his head up, fear reflecting on his haggard face. "No, please, leave my friends alone. I... I'll do it."

"You still consider Spike to be one of your friends?" Kertchum asked in mock surprise. "That's very generous of you."

"Spike? I don't understand."

Dr. Kertchum smiled at his confusion. "I believe our mutual friend is having second thoughts about our _arrangement._ I want to perform the operation on him right away so he know I'm a man of my word." His smiled widened, "I keep my promises, Lucas, whatever they may be. Don't forget that, or what I've told you I will do if you do not obey." He turned to leave as Lucas tried to control his erratic breathing.

* * *

Spike slipped into the kitchen, grimacing when he saw the only two people awake. He raised his hands before they saw him, knowing what he was about to do may get him staked. Xander jumped to his feet when he caught sight of movement, and Tim wasn't far behind him. "Wait, I know where he is." Spike managed to shout before he was knocked backwards by Tim simply putting his hands out in front of his body.

"Bloody hell, did you hear what I said?" He snapped, trying to disentangle himself from a stool.

"Of course you know where he is, you piece of filth." Tim spat, advancing on him ready to attack again. "What did you do?"

Spike looked from one angry human to the other. "You don't understand..."

"Just stop," Xander growled, crossing his arms over his chest. "You have thirty seconds to tell us where he is and get out before I let Tim blast you into little pieces. He's been practicing."

"Can't, you'll need me to get you in." Spike finally stood, and slowly lifted his hands again. "Can you call preacher boy off? I feel like I'm getting threatened by a boy scout."

Xander nodded stiffly, and they both backed off. "So? Where is he?"

Spike sighed, and fixed the stool he knocked over, sitting on it before answering. "This isn't going to be a walk in the park..."


	34. Chapter 34

"We might need some kind of firepower." Xander pointed out, looking over the drawing supplied by Spike. "With Willow out of commission we just don't have enough people."

Jayde nodded, "have any connections?"

He shook his head, and sighed. "No, not anymore. Riley would, but who knows where he is now."

"Angel?" Tara asked hopefully, as Spike scoffed at the mention.

Xander shook his head again. "I tried that, he's dealing with… well… he's going to be a dad, so no."

Dawn blinked in surprise. "Wait, how?"

"Didn't ask, didn't want to know." Xander snorted.

Tim peered at the diagram, "how many guards?"

"From what I saw, at least twenty humans, five or so demons." Spike pointed to the doorways. Always in twos and at every entrance."

"We've fought worse." Dawn said confidently. "And once Lucas hears us coming, he'll be help too, right?"

Xander hesitated before replying, conscious of Jayde watching him closely. "If he can."

Anya calling from the living room interrupted their dark thoughts. "Guys? I think something changed."

The group rushed to where Willow was laying, expecting the worst. Instead, she was sitting up and staring straight ahead. Tara sat next to her. "What is it? Is Lucas… is he... did something happen?"

"I'm not sure…" she whispered, breaking her intense gaze to look at Tim and Jayde. "He's… still scared… but, I… I don't know how to describe it." She let out a breath and brought her knees to her chest, hugging them tightly. "He's just... numb. I think he gave up."

"How?" Tim asked, "what did they do?"

"Kertchum broke him." Spike quietly answered for her. "He stopped fighting didn't he?"

Willow nodded, and shuddered. "He just... feels so hopeless." She closed her eyes tightly. "I can sense him a lot stronger now though. I think him fighting them was blocking me out too."

"Can you talk to him?" Xander asked, "like how you do with us when we're fighting something?"

She took a deep breath, "I can try, but... he may not understand what's going on if his mental state is fractured."

"We have to try something, let him know we're coming." Spike told her forcefully.

Xander rounded on him. "Oh, you care so much now?! You're the one who got him in this situation."

"You don't understand..." Spike started, backing away from him.

"Yeah, you keep saying that. I heard you twice the first time." Xander stepped closer and hissed through his teeth. "You're only coming along as extra muscle, if you try anything, or get in our way, you'll be dust so fast you won't be able to even say anything clever."

* * *

There was a knock on the door, and Lucas stood quickly, stepping away from the desk and keeping his eyes downcast. "Yes?"

Dr. Kertchum entered and rolled to a stop. What he saw in front of him made him smile proudly. "You've finished?"

"Almost sir, I was just putting some final touches on what I changed." Lucas answered carefully.

"What do you have left?"

Lucas slowly approached the computer and pointed to some of the information displayed. "The voltage is still off, but I'm not sure how to fix it without more data."

Kertchum nodded, "I'll take care of it, I have more experience in that area." He pulled a thumb drive from his pocket and handed to Lucas. "Save it, you can keep your copy. Perhaps some inspiration will strike you yet."

Lucas took the drive, trying not to shudder as he brushed by Kertchum's skin. "Yes, sir. I'll keep trying." He said softly, still not looking at the man. He plugged it in and silently waited for the transfer.

"Would you like something to eat?"

He paused, deciding how to respond, then nodded. "Yes, if... if you want me to."

"I think that supper is a good reward for all your hard work." Dr. Kertchum waved two fingers at the ever present guards, and they entered, carrying the promised meal.

Lucas accepted the bag and set it on the desk, then pulled the drive out and handed it back. "Thank you, sir."

Dr. Kertchum couldn't help but smile at the teen's demeanor. "I was going to wait with this, but I told you I value obedience, and you have done very well." He whispered something to one of the guards, who quickly left the room.

Lucas stayed still, his head bowed. The word 'obedience' raked his nerves, but he no longer had the wherewithal to do anything about it. He inhaled the heavenly scent of the food, and waited until he was given an order.

The guard returned within minutes carrying a video game controller attached to a long cord, and a disk. He set them down on the desk and resumed his post behind the doctor. Lucas stared at the items in confusion and finally looked at Kertchum. "Sir?"

"A little fun, I think you'll enjoy it in light of your recent experiences. Just don't spend all night playing it. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow." He spun his wheelchair around and left the bewildered Lucas staring after him.

The smell of the food finally snapped him out of his state of shock and Lucas was able to act on his own accord. He pulled open the bag to examine to contents, and chuckled dryly, "At least you have good taste in junk food, sir." Pulling out the large burger, Lucas sat at the computer and slid the unlabeled disk into it's slot.

When the title screen came up, reading 'Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem,' Lucas nearly choked on his food. "And you have a sense of humor. Really... a game about being driven insane because you have to fight monsters..."

* * *

"No no no! Stop it! My meter isn't even that low, I can't be going crazy yet!" Lucas yelled as his game screen flipped upside down. When his character died with an agonizing scream, he tossed the controller down in frustration. He had only been playing for a hour, but took the blood splatter on the screen as a sign to quit for the night.

He was reaching to close the program when he heard his name. Lucas whipped his head around, starting to stand. There was no knock on the door and it didn't move. "Yeah, too many creepy monsters. Time for bed." He tried to laugh, but it came out forced.

_Lucas, we're coming._

He jumped away from the computer, inhaling quickly. "What... what is that?"

_We know where you are, but we'll need some help._

Lucas shut the laptop and sat on the bed holding his head. "No, it's just the game messing with me. Or... Or I need sleep."

_Lucas! It's Willow, we're coming to get you out. Are you able to fight if we need it?_

He curled up on the bed, sucking in air. "It's a trick, you just want me to try to escape so you can punish me." Lucas covered his face with the pillow and held back the sobs that were gathering in his throat. "I won't. Please... I'll be good, I'll be loyal."

_Listen to me, it's going..._

"No!" He jumped from the bed and spoke to the camera. "You put something in the food! Or you programmed the game to do this!" Lucas dropped to his knees, "please just stop. I'm... I'm obeying, I won't try anything. Please..." He let the tears roll down his cheeks as he cowered on the floor.

The door shot open, causing Lucas to shriek in terror. He crawled to the cot, and tried to fit his whole body under the narrow space. "No, please, I didn't do anything." He begged in blind panic.  
"Lucas... Lucas come out tell me what's happening." Dr. Kertchum's voice was soft and gentle. "No one is here to hurt you."

A low moan was his only response, and Kertchum's tone became sharper. "Lucas, stop this foolishness. Come out and tell me what is wrong."

Lucas slid from the bed, still on his knees, inches from the doctor's chair. "I... I don't know what you want me to do sir. I won't try to get away. Please, just make her stop." He begged, leaning his forehead on the armrest.

Kertchum carefully reached out and laid a hand on the blond hair, caressing and attempting to calm the trembling teen. "No one was in here, what happened?"

"No, sir, some one was talking to me, I heard them." He swallowed and looked up beseechingly. "I thought it was the game but..."

Dr. Kertchum smiled warmly as Lucas started to catch his breath, his eyes were still wide, but no longer dilated with fear. "Was it a nightmare after playing maybe? That game may be a little gruesome for you, perhaps something... friendlier, would be welcome."

"I've played it before, sir, and I like it, I never had a problem before... but you must be right. I must have fallen asleep." He quickly agreed, looking troubled.

"You've been through a lot lately, Lucas, and made a big change in your life. Things will calm down and you can rest easy." Dr. Kertchum assured him.

He nodded while chewing his lip, and rested his chin on the armrest to look up at the doctor. "Thank you, it just really surprised me I guess. I haven't ever had anything quite like that happen before."

Kertchum gestured to the bed, "why don't you try again, this time where you are suppose to sleep."

Lucas grinned sheepishly, and stood. "Yes, sir, I'm sorry."

"That's quite alright young man. We all have nightmares, just remember that you are safe here with me." He waited until Lucas pulled the blanket up, and gently slid a piece of hair off his forehead. "As along as you do everything I say, nothing will happen to you. No one can get to you, real or imaginary."

Lucas smiled back at his protector. "Yes, sir."

"And if you hear something like that again, just ignore it. Remember the sound of my voice and only that." Dr. Kertchum said soothingly.

"Thank you, sir, I will." He eyes began to droop and Lucas fell asleep, comforted in the knowledge Kertchum was watching him.

* * *

Willow broke her concentration with a horrified cry at what she had felt and heard. The others looked on in concern. "He won't listen to me anymore, we've lost him."


	35. Chapter 35

Kertchum looked at the closed door beside him, after exiting the room. "If it happens again, call me immediately. And I want you to double the men at his door."

The guard nodded, "yes, sir. Any ideas as to what it was?"

"His friends could have found a way to communicate with him, or he could be losing his mind, I'm not sure. If it's the former, they won't get very far with him now. And if it's the latter, he could be a risk to himself. If you have to restrain him, be very careful. But talk to him and try to calm him first. Tell him I'm coming, that should help. I'll stay close."

"Permission to use force?"

"Only as a last resort, he thinks we care about him, I'd like to keep that way."

* * *

"No! I refuse to believe that!" Jayde yelled, coming face to face with Willow. "You need to try again."

Willow shook her head sadly, "he thinks Dr. Kertchum is keeping him safe. He won't listen to anything I say."

Xander pulled her back by the shoulder, and she swung a fist at him. "Let me go you bastard, I won't give up on him like this."

He dodged the blow and held her arms down to her sides. "No one is giving up on him. We just need to regroup." He tried to explain gently.

She twisted away, and stormed from the room. Tim sighed and rubbed his face. "What about the robot? Can we use her?"

Willow nodded, "if we can start working on her now, we can finished in a little while. It's mostly superficial damage."

Dawn quietly slipped from the room to find Jayde sitting in back yard on one of the old swings. "Hey."

Jayde looked up and wiped away her tears. "Hey."

"You ok?"

"Yeah, I will be. This is just a lot."

Dawn sat on the ground next her. "I know, but we'll figure something out. We won't leave him like that."

Jayde only nodded and looked into the distance. Finally, she sighed, "yeah, I know... I just want him safe, and with me."

Dawn looked at her searchingly. "Do you love him?"

She paused, "yeah, I do."

"So we just need a way to reach him. Something to bring him back."

Jayde went quiet again, digging her toes into the earth. She glanced up suddenly, "I think I have an idea."

* * *

Lucas groaned and rolled over, then sat up. Something woke him up, but after looking around his room, he couldn't figure out what.

The quiet voice spoke in his mind again, _Lucas._

"No..." he whispered, shaking his head and squeezing his eyes closed to stop it. "He said you aren't real." He laid down again, trying to ignore the voice.

_Don't speak out-loud, they'll know we're talking again. I can hear what you're thinking. Just need you to listen for a minute._

_I'll listen, but it doesn't matter, you're not real. I won't believe anything you say._

_Jayde asked me to tell you that you still look like a scientist._

Lucas' breath caught in his throat and his mind raced. _Jayde? No... no, this is all in my head, you know what to say because I know about it. That doesn't prove anything. _He tried to concentrate on the tone of Dr. Kertchum's voice that he had learned so well, and slowed his breathing to normal.

_Ok, wait a minute... Xander said we can't prove who we are by saying something you know because you already know it._

__That... that sounds like something he'd say.__

__Do you believe me now?__

__I don't know. If you're real, it could be Dr. Kertchum testing me, if you're fake, I'm going crazy.__

_You aren't going crazy._

_Then why am I talking to a voice in my head? _

_We all do it here when we need to work together._

_How is that supposed to convince me? The voice in my head says it ok to believe it because it talks to other voices in it's head?_

_Ok, I don't have a good answer for that. But we want to help you._

_Help me with what? I'm safe here. Russ won't let anyone hurt me._

_Lucas... I know you're confused, but he's the one you can't trust._

_No... stop... just stop._

_Jayde wants me to tell you something else... she... she said she loves you._

_Oh... _Lucas opened his eyes in shock. _I guess that's something I didn't know. Is she ok?_

_Yes, she's here with me. We all want you know we're coming to get you out. But we need you to help too._

_I can't. If this is real... if he finds out... he said he'll... _Lucas couldn't mentally put the rest of his thought into words, but he received a gasp of disgusted horror when Willow read it.

_That won't happen. We won't let it._

_How? You can't save me, no one can. He's the only one who can keep me safe._

_We will, you don't need him. Aren't you afraid of him?_

_I'm not sure... Sometimes I am... but... _Lucas shook his head, trying to clear his muddled thoughts.

_Maybe you just need sometime away from him to think. If you want to go back, you can. _Lucas noticed a twinge of desperation in her thoughts that made him want to believe her._ Will you work with us if we get in?_

_Y... yes. I'll try._

There was a long pause, and Lucas tried to wait patiently, waiting for her voice to return. He remembered he was suppose to be sleeping, and rolled to hide his face from the camera.

_Ok, we need some kind of visual of the inside of the building to gain an edge. It's huge and there are a lot of guards. If you are looking at something, I can see it too if you let me. Is there any way to see all the rooms?_

Lucas thought of the objects in his cell, and smiled. _Yeah, I can do that. I'll need some kind of distraction though. I think they watch me all of the time. Last time you... uh... talked to me, they were here in seconds._ He quickly ran through a plan in his mind.

_Perfect, we'll take care of the distraction. You have an hour to get ready and I'll call you right before. Ok?_

_Yes... just... please promise me this isn't some kind of trick. If he cuts off my hands, I won't be any use to him... he said he'd just take me apart piece by piece for wasting what I could have done for him._

_Lucas, I promise, it isn't going to happen. If you need me, just think my name really hard, like you're yelling._

_Why?_

_Tim and I are going to be working on the robot, I won't be be able to pay as much attention. _

_Ok, got it._

_And... one last thing. It's very important to stay as calm as possible through this whole thing._

_What? Why?_

_I'll explain after everything is over, just try, ok?_

_Yeah, I will._

Lucas rolled back away from the wall, and got up to use the computer. He paused for a while, churning things over in his mind. Finally, humming loudly to himself, he started typing rapidly.  
He tried not to think of what he doing, and just let his fingers work.

After few moments of typing, he waved at the camera, trying to get a response. The door flew open a minute later and he stood back from the laptop, firmly staring at the floor. "I thought you were sleeping." Dr. Kertchum said sternly with a hint of irritation in his voice.

Lucas pointed to the computer in reply. The man wheeled to the desk and began to read silently. "Sir, the voice is real. They are trying to take me away from you. Willow can hear what I hear and say, but they are working on a plan to break in right now. I don't know if this is safe from her, but I had to warn you. I told them I would help them so they would leave me alone. What would you like me to do?"

Kertchum nodded, and reached up to squeeze Lucas' hand. "good job. Go ahead with what they've planned, and let her know about it. I have to go so she can't hear me, but I'll be back. Don't worry, we'll keep you safe."

* * *

Willow dropped a circuit board and gasped, laying a hand on her chest. "Oh! That... that was powerful."

"What happened?!" Tim demanded, jumping up and sending the pieces of the robot flying.

"No, it's ok." She beamed at him. "Lucas must have been able to get everything ready for us. He's just really happy and... at peace, I think he finally feels safe."


	36. Chapter 36

"I don't like this." Spike sniffed the night air. "There aren't nearly enough people in there."

"Did he replace them with demons?" Tim asked, looking at the low, wide building.

The vampire shook his head. "I don't think so, if he did, it was only a few, they all smell the same."

Xander made a face, "I didn't know you could smell how many people were in a building."

"Well, yeah. I just don't bring it up. Don't want to asked to do it, I'm not a bloody party trick." Spike shot back.

The dark hair young man shrugged, "alright, I just won't invite you to any parties then. Not that I was planning to."

"Guys..." Willow chided them. "Would you stop for once?" She didn't bother glancing at the men, instead concentrating on the spell she was creating with Tara and Jayde.

"Can you still see Dawn?" Xander whispered nervously. "I don't like her out there by herself."

Spike scoffed, "she's safer than the lot of us, breaking in a place like this." He leaned forward into the darkness, letting his face vamp out. "Yeah, she's good."

"Does she still have the phone?" He asked, trying to see her.

Spike let out an annoyed sigh. "She isn't a toddler. Did you write the number for 911 on the back of her hand too?"

"Do you think I should?" Xander started to stand, Spike yanked him down with a jerk and glared at him. His yellow eyes glowed in the moonlight. "Right, sarcasm."

"Ok, we're ready, I just have to tell Lucas." Willow pushed by them with Jayde, hoisting a large kettle between them. "Spike, you need to throw this as far as you can as soon as you reach the door."

Spike nodded, and took the kettle from them, easily lifting it with one hand, and walked away. Willow sat on the ground and closed her eyes. _Lucas? We're ready._

_So am I_. The image of the video game controller with a frayed end flitted through her mind. _Once I hear the shouts, I'll plug it in and give you the visual._

_Great, we'll get you out soon._

_Y... yeah, great._ Came his flickering reply, and Willow felt his panic rise.

_Lucas... just stay calm._

_Trying, get in here. I just want this to be over._

* * *

Lucas looked over his shoulder, "they're coming, sir."

Dr. Kertchum nodded, "good job, son."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Hook up your cord, I'm interested to see if it works."

Lucas climbed on top of the desk and rewired the security camera. He jumped down and opened a program he had quickly designed. A window popped up showing the rooms of the medical clinic. He turned completely to face him.

"Very good, I have to say I'm impressed. Who else would think to do that?" The doctor said in an smug but awed voice.

The teen blushed at the compliment. "Thank you, sir. Anything else I can do for you?"

"Yes, actually, stand up and turn around."

Lucas obeyed immediately and felt handcuffs close around his wrists. "Sir? What... did I do something wrong?"

He heard a chuckling behind him, and Dr. Kertchum patted him on the back, then turned him again. "No, just a little extra insurance if they managed to get past the guards."

"How? I can't fight like this." Lucas furrowed his brow trying to reason out what was planned. "I can't do anything to help you."

"You have helped me, Lucas. You told me they were coming and now you will be helping me this way. They won't dare to attack me if you are standing in front of me." Kertchum reassured him.

Something started to stir in Lucas' mind. "You... you mean like a human shield?"

"Lucas," he started slowly, anger evident in his voice. "I've kept you safe here, and I plan to continue doing so. Now it's your turn to do the same for me. Don't you think that's fair?"

"Ye... yes, sir, I'm sorry." He dropped his gaze at the rebuke.

Dr. Kertchum nodded, "watch the feed, give them what they ask. I'll send some one if the need arises."

Lucas dropped into the chair and stared at the screen intently, uncomfortably trying to adjust him with the cuffs behind him. Kertchum gave him one last look before wheeling away and locking the door. A guard was waiting for him as he left the room.

"Sir, we an issue."

"More than one." Kertchum snapped, annoyed that Lucas had questioned an order, however how briefly. "What is it?"

The guard saw the danger flashing in the doctor's eyes, and hesitated. "The vampire is back."

"I thought as much, they planned a distraction of some sort." He sighed, "send him in."

Spike strode in confidently and stopped in front of Dr. Kertchum. "I want to see him."

"It's late."

He snorted and rolled his eyes. "I wasn't aware he had a curfew. And when am I supposed to come? Not a fan of sunlight here."

"He's busy." Kertchum said firmly. "You can't visit right now."

"Part of the deal was that I could check on the kid when I wanted to." Spike said through his teeth. "Are you going back on that now?"

"No, the deal is done. I'm ready to take out your chip."

Spike's eyes opened wide, "what do you mean?"

Dr. Kertchum smiled, "you don't need to worry about him, I'll remove your... handicap, and you can leave. It's done."

Spike was nearly speechless when he thought of how things could change for him. He regarded the doctor intently and then finally nodded. "Right, we'll do it straight away then. But I want to see the kid first."

"Why? He's alive and you're getting your operation. He is no longer any concern to you." Kertchum growled, growing impatient with what he saw as an attempt to buy time.

He shrugged, "he makes me laugh, I should at least say goodbye. And thank him for being the reason I'll be back to my old self."

A few shouts from the hallway took their attention for a moment. "Fine," Dr. Kertchum nodded, "go see him one last time. I suppose it's safer than after I remove it. I don't want you eating what I worked to hard to achieve." He gestured to one of the guards to follow him and left the large room, following the sounds.

Spike smugly grinned as the remaining guard stepped away from the door. "I smell a little demon in you, mother or father?"

"Um, mother." He answered in surprise.

"Hm, there's something I want to try if you don't mind." Spike took a step closer and surveyed the guard.

His eyes darted around the room. "Dr. Kertchum will be back soon, if he thinks I'm neglecting my duties... He's not someone you want mad at you."

"Won't take a minute." Spike lashed out with a brutal right hook and the guard slumped where he was standing. "Or maybe less, thanks mate, wasn't sure if that would work."

He unlocked the door and pushed through. Lucas stood quickly and looked at him in surprise. "What are you doing here? Everyone else is still at the entrance." Spike saw the laptop screen displaying the group of friends fighting for their lives. Lucas nervously looked over the vampire's shoulder."You can't be here yet..."

"And here I thought you'd be happy to see me." Spike grumbled, Lucas stared him apprehensively. "Look, kid, I know you're freaked. And I'm sorry it took so long for me to speak up. I guess soul searching takes a little longer when you don't have one." He tried to smile, but seeing Lucas' doubtful face wiped it away. "Come on, we don't have much time."

Lucas shook his head and back away. "I... I have to stay and watch the screen for Willow."

Spike took hold of his arm, knowing something was very wrong with the youth, and deciding to take matters into his own hands. "She told me to get you if I could, she's seen as much as she needs. There are less people here than we thought, they're already half way through them judging from all the blood I'm smelling."

"But... what about..." Lucas couldn't think if a plausible argument and found himself being pulled out of the room.

Once he was behind Lucas, pushing him forward, Spike saw the handcuffs. "What are those for?"

"Oh, um, he started cuffing me after he locked me for the night." Lucas thought rapidly, hoping the vampire couldn't tell he was lying.

Spike stopped him with a tug and spun him around. "Then how did you hook up the computer to show Willow what was coming?"

"I... I..." Lucas started to gasp for breath, running out of arguments. He whipped his foot out, catching Spike in the shin and took off running. "Someone help me! He's in here!"  
He stopped at the door, facing the incoming Dr. Kertchum. "Sir!"

Kertchum entered the room, forcing Lucas to slowly back up to the center. "You're ok, I'm here, he won't hurt you." He reached out and pulled on the cuffs with one hand, twisting Lucas around and dragging him tight against his legs.

Lucas relaxed when he felt the action, and sighed in relief. "Thank you, sir."

Spike watched in shock, not believing what he saw. "What did you do to him?"

"I told you he would be mine, and he is."


	37. Chapter 37

The group hiding in the darkness watched as Spike walked to the entrance of the building. He slowed slightly, and tossed the large kettle. The thick liquid rained down, covering the side of the building and the ground around it. "Ok, five minutes, unless we get something from either of them." Willow whispered nervously.

They started to wait, and Willow's eyes took on a glazed expression. "He's looking at the camera... why didn't he wait for the signal?"

"Maybe Spike is already in there." Anya offered, smiling mischievously "he can be pretty distracting himself."

Xander cast her an annoyed look, "please never say anything like that again."

"Don't worry Xander," she leaned her head on his shoulder. "I like the way we have sex, that new thing you did..."

"Anya! Not now!" He growled as the others tried not to giggle.

"Ok, I think it's time." Willow announced, "Spike is with Kertchum, it's now or never." She signaled to the Buffy-bot to take the lead, and possibly the first fatal blows, and they walked to the building. "Tim, you'll be taking any demons." He nodded grimly, gripping a bottle of holy water. "Everyone else gets the humans."

"Can we kill them?" Jayde asked coldly.

Willow slowed her step, "only if we have to." They came to a stop in front if the doors. "I don't see anyone around." She took a deep breath, "Fiat Lux!" The wet ground and building flared to a blinding light, and they pulled open the door.

* * *

"They knew we were coming!" Willow panted after throwing a spell that caused the unfortunate recipient to shoot through a window, shattering it on his way out. Almost from the moment they stepped into the building, guards came pouring from different rooms in waves. They were holding their own, but barely. Tim carried a nice looking assault rifle he had obtained from Xander early on, but was hesitant to use it in the bedlam in case he hit one of his own party.

The ever hapless Buffy-bot was struck down early, victim to a shot fired by Tim's new prize. Seeing her fall triggered a rage in Xander, and he had taken out the shooter with his bare hands. He was sporting bruises and a bloody nose for his efforts, but they now had a gun, and he felt some small vindication for not being able to help the original Buffy when she died. "Tell Dawn to call now, we can't keep going like this."

Willow nodded, and hissed in pain as Tara tended to a nasty slash on her arm. A demon had briefly knocked Tim down as he was fighting one of its brethren, and charged the witch. He was able to destroy it with a shouted prayer, his righteous anger exploding into shreds, but not before it took a swipe at her with razor sharp claws.

Another guard tried to sneak up on Jayde as she worriedly watched Willow and Tara. She delivered a precise roundhouse kick to his midsection, sending him flying to Anya's feet where she gleefully kicked him in the head. "Do you think that means they may have moved Lucas?" She asked apprehensively, stopping to catch her breath.

Willow closed her eyes, trying to block out the chaos around her and the pain caused by Tara wrapping her arm in a torn off shirt sleeve. "No ,he's here." She reported, "Spike is with him... But so is Dr. Kertchum." She took a shuddering breath. "You need to get to him. If Kertchum knows Lucas helped us, he'll... You just need to move."

Jayde studied her, letting Xander take care of the next attacker. "What do you mean?"

Instead of answering her, Willow turned her head to look at Lucas' current commanding officer, mentally communicating with him. Tim paled then went green, "come on, it's better if you don't know." He muttered and pulled her away from the fighting.

* * *

"He wants to stay with me." Dr. Kertchum explained, staring the vampire down with an arrogant smirk.

"I'll believe that when it comes from his own mouth, and he's not being held hostage." Spike growled, taking a step forward.

Dr. Kertchum nodded, and released the handcuff link, placing his hand in the small of Lucas' back and shoving him forward. "Ok, tell him, son."

His heart jumped into his throat when Lucas realized he was being pushed away. An agonizing feeling of abandonment enveloped him. "No, please Spike, just let me stay. He's keeping me safe." Lucas pleaded, trying to step back to the comfort of Kertchum's hold as he fought with his cuffs.

"Keeping you safe from what?" Spike scrutinized his struggles. "He's got you standing in front of him so I don't attack, and you've no way to defend yourself. That seems a little off in my book."

"What?" Lucas stopped fidgeting to shake his head in confusion. "You don't understand..."

"I thought that was my line, kid." Spike spoke quietly, while advancing again. "Just answer me, and if I like what you say, I'll leave." He came to a stop mere feet away. "What is he protecting you from?"

Lucas just looked at him, completely unsure of how to answer. "I... I don't know, but he said..."

"He had you kidnapped and tortured, now he's using you as some kind of human shield. Think about it, you're a genius right?"

"But...he never hurt me... I wasn't... He didn't torture me..." the gears in Lucas' head were spinning wildly. He looked over his shoulder to Dr. Kertchum. "What do I do?" He turned completely to face him, his bewilderment evident as he searched for an answer.

"Listen to me, Lucas. Come with your friends." Spike tried to advise him. The teen's head whipped back and forth searching for the right answer.

Dr. Kertchum snorted and reached for the cuffs again, turning and securing Lucas against him. "Who do you trust to keep you safe? Your friends who let you get taken in the middle if the night? Spike was even part of that, he just wants to earn your trust and do it again. I am the only one who can keep you safe, Lucas, not your friends, not your family, not even your captain. Me, only me."

He nodded uncertainly, his shoulders slumping. "Yes, sir." He looked up at Spike, and for the first time since he walked into the cell, the vampire saw fear in the boy's eyes that wasn't directed at him. "I… I…"

Dr. Kertchum placed a firm hand on Lucas' arm, turning him to face him uncomfortably. His arms and body were contorted painfully, but he didn't voice a complaint, only looking deep into Kertcum's eyes. "Have I laid a finger on you? He drank your blood. Remember that, you nearly died."

"But... But that was only because we had to get away from Warren... and... you..." Lucas flinched in terror, and started to pull away.

Dr. Kertchum tightened his hold, easily controlling the boy in his vulnerable position. "I haven't hurt you, but remember what will happen if you don't obey." He twisted the handcuffs so they cut into Lucas' wrists.

He whimpered and tried to pull away again. "Just... just let me figure this out."

In response, Dr. Kertchum pushed up on the handcuffs, forcing them high. Lucas screamed in anguish as his newly healed shoulder ground in the socket. He was bent at the waist trying alleviate some of the pressure, but could only lift his head. He looked at Spike plaintively, "please.. help me."

Kertchum laughed at his agony laced voice, "he can't do anything for you, Lucas, don't you remember how helpless he is?"

"Oh bloody hell, I don't have time for this." Spike snarled. He took another step and threw a punch to the side of Lucas' head, screaming in furious pain as he did so.

Lucas dropped to the floor, sliding down to side of Kertchum's chair. "There, now it's just you and me, Doc." Spike smirked, "want to see how many time I can bite you before it gets too painful for me? That would be an interesting experiment in itself..."

Dr. Kertchum blanched as his own words came back to him. He desperately tried to lift Lucas back in front of him, but couldn't manage the dead weight of the teen. Spike pulled Lucas away with a jerk, and the doctor was forced to let him go so he wouldn't yanked out of his chair.

"I can still help you, Spike." He tried to bargain.

"Like you helped Lucas?" Spike snapped back. "I'll deal with the bloody chip."

Tim and Jayde appeared in the doorway and Tim took careful aim with his stolen gun. "Why don't I take over from here, Spike. It won't hurt me in the least to kill this gath mal hmar."

"How did you get in here? I paid top dollar for those demons to stop you!" Kertchum yelled, enraged that he was so quickly losing control of the situation.

Spike snorted, "didn't you hear? Tim's a superhero now, got the ear of God and all that."

The sound of approaching sirens reached them and Spike cocked his head. "Well now, never thought I'd be happy to hear those..."


	38. Chapter 38

Lucas ignored the pretty young nurse that flitted through the room, checking his vitals as she tried to make conversation with him. Finally she left, and he was able to be alone with his own thoughts. He didn't know her, and didn't feel comfortable speaking with her just yet. He had woken up a few minutes earlier in a room he didn't recognize, although the medical equipment gave him a hint as to where he was.

All he could do was wait. He was completely resigned to his fate, he understood what was coming and had accepted it already. Lucas' only hope was his preference would be honored. There was a knock on the door, and he snapped to attention. "Yes, sir?"

A familiar face entered, but not the one Lucas expected. "Hello Mr. Wolenczak, I would say it's nice to see you, but I'm not fond of this situation you managed to find yourself in." He smiled warmly.

Lucas swallowed, fighting panic and nodded. "Sorry, sir."

"You don't have to call me that, do you remember my name from when I saw you last?"

"Um… Dr. Schnider?"

The doctor smiled again, "yes, so how are you feeling?"

Lucas played with his blanket. "I'm ok, nervous though."

"Don't be, you'll be fine."

He nodded again, "if you say so, sir. How long have you worked for Dr. Kertchum?"

The doctor blinked in surprise, "pardon?"

"I… I mean, it's none of my business. I guess I'm just delaying what you have to do." Lucas closed his eyes briefly, and bit down on his lip before continuing, "please, before you do it, can you just ask him something for me?"

Dr. Schnider only looked at him, and Lucas plunged ahead. "I know I don't have any say in it, but if you can cut off my left hand, I can get back to work for him a lot faster." He took a deep and shaky breath. "And tell him I'm sorry. I got confused, and fought him, I shouldn't have done that."

The doctor's jaw dropped, he snapped it closed, and shook his head. "Lucas, that's not why you're here."

"No, you don't have to lie. I won't try to stop it. I disobeyed, it's my own fault." He looked away and took another deep breath. "Are you going to put me under? I don't want to embarrass him if I scream while you do it."

Dr. Schnider stared at him, "I'll be back, I... I have to speak to someone for a moment."

"Yes, sir." Lucas mumbled, sounding lifeless.

The doctor nodded curtly before leaving the room. Lucas rested his head on the pillow, and stared out the window, waiting for his punishment.

Tim caught sight of Dr. Schnider as he exited the room, looking horrified. "What is it? Is Lucas ok? They said it was only a mild concussion and he'd be awake soon."

"Physically, he'll be just fine after a few days." He checked the chart hanging from the wall next to the door. "The police haven't released any details to us, other than he was starved and deprived of sleep." The doctor shook his head. "What happened to him?"

Tim sighed, "it's a long story, basically, he was held by a madman who got into his head."

"It's going to be a long road to recovery before he's back to normal." Dr. Schnider advised. "I was only with him shortly, but I've never seen anyone so… defeated."

* * *

Tim hesitated before entering Lucas' room. In the three days he had been there, two different psychiatrists and a several nurses had tried to elicit a response from the teen, but were rebuffed or simply told to do as Dr. Kertchum had ordered. He became violent when they tried to tell him otherwise, and had been restrained for everyone's safety, including his own.

The staff accepted it when Tim told them he was currently the only family around that Lucas had, but didn't allow him or anyone else to see him, citing his fragile mental state. They were trying to convince him to give the go ahead to medicate the boy. Tim wasn't comfortable with the idea and wanted to see if he could help without drugs. He didn't know if he could actually help matters, but he had to try.

After ensuring Xander had the attention of the nurses, Tim gritted his teeth, and pushed open the door. Lucas tried to jump from the bed when saw the communications officer, but the straps in his arms only allowed him to sit up. Tim winced at panic on his overly thin face and the idea of the young man tied down for any reason.

"You can't be here." He said, breathing raggedly with frantic eyes.

"Lucas, do you know where you are?" Tim asked cautiously, approaching the bed.

The teen looked at him, confusion written in his expresion. "What do you mean?"

"You're in the hospital, we got you away from Dr. Kertchum and he's in jail. No one is going to hurt you, or..." He swallowed his disgust, looking for the right words, "or mutilate you." The teen dropped his eyes and whimpered at the mention of his punishment.

"In... in jail?" Lucas was finally able to whisper after gaining control of himself again, "how?"

Tim sat on the bed next to him and chose to ignore the shudder that ripped through Lucas' body when their arms touched. "We staged a small invasion." He grinned, "it was all pretty badass."

Lucas twitched, and slowly lifted his head to look at him. A laugh broke from his lips that was sounded forced and slightly hysterical. "You swore... in English."

Tim joined in on the laughter, "yeah, I think this place is a bad influence on me." They chuckled together a few more moments before Lucas went quiet again. "You believe me?"

"I donno, everyone is saying that, but... it doesn't seem possible." Lucas raised his hand to brush hair from his eyes, but stopped and scowled at the restraints. "Taking these off might help."

Tim hesitated, but then nodded and released him. "Better?"

"Is it really over?" He whispered, fighting tears, and rubbing his wrists. "Please, even if it's a lie, tell me it's over."

"Yeah man, it is. You know I can't lie, I promise, you're safe." Tim placed a hand on Lucas' knee and was pleased when he tensed but didn't recoil from the contact. "He's going away for a long time, he won't be able to hurt anyone again."

Lucas leaned forward and locked his arms around Tim's waist. He hid his face in the officer's shoulder and started to weep.

* * *

Lucas was released from the hospital the next day. His friends were concerned by how quiet he was, but understood it would take awhile for his old attitude to come back. Very early the following morning, Dawn found him outside in the backyard staring into the darkness.

He jumped when she opened to door. "Sorry, did I wake you up?" He asked, trying to cover up his noticeable nervousness.

"Nah, couldn't sleep. I don't much since Buffy..." She sat down next to him. "You?"

"I get close, then... I hear the alarm Kertchum used on me when I was with him." He shrugged nonchalantly but started mindlessly pulling up the grass beside him.

She nodded to a bare patch near a tree. "I normally do that over there."

Lucas looked at the grass in his hand and the surrounding area. "Oh, sorry. I didn't even realize I was doing it."

"It's ok, just means Xander has less to mow." Dawn glanced at him sideways. "What's bothering you?"

He flinched, "nothing, I'm fine."

"Oh please," she snorted, "you're talking to the princess of 'I'm fine.' You can tell me."

"I gave in, I just folded and did what he wanted." He suddenly blurted. "What does that say about me?"

Dawn blinked in shock at his confession. "What do you mean?"

Lucas ran a hand through his hair, and stopped when his fingers came to rest on the small scars. "I fixed the interface, the damn thing that Jayde and I nearly died for."

"I thought Warren designed it."

"He did. But there were problems, I worked them out and handed the finished product over." He spat bitterly.

"Lucas, they tortured you. Don't blame yourself for this."

He lifted his arms in the moonlight, the fading, but still deep bruises left from the handcuffs were just barely visible. "I don't see anything that looks like I was." Lucas dropped his hands and laughed dryly. "They barely touched me, I got more beat up when you guys rescued me."

Dawn sighed and wrinkled her face. "Just because someone doesn't physically hurt you, it doesn't make it not torture."

He snorted and started to stand. "Yeah, whatever."

"No," she started, grabbing his hand. "I mean it. I know it's corny, but just listen." He stopped and looked down at her. "If it had been Jayde, or Tim, or Xander, what would have done to Kerchum?"

"Killed him." Lucas answered automatically.

"So you wouldn't blame them?"

Lucas sat again, hugging his legs. "No, but it's different."

"How?"

"Because... it's me." Dawn waited for him to explain more. He spoke in a strained but confident voice, "I figured something out a while go. Because of what I can do, there will always be someone out there who wants me to work for them. Someone who just wants to use me and get rid of me when they're done. I swore to myself, after the Eco-terrorists took over SeaQuest, that I would never cooperate with whoever tried to make me do something like that. I knew I could fight it. But I let happen... twice now, with Kertchum and with Julianna."

Lucas got his feet again, "I could deal with knowing that I'll probably end up dead purely because I'm stubborn... but now I know I can give in too." He turned away from the stunned girl, and walked into the house, slamming the door behind him.


	39. Chapter 39

Jayde leaned back from the open window after hearing the exchange directly below her. She quickly slid back into bed, and faced away when she heard Lucas coming back upstairs. His tossing and turning had kept her up all night, and now her mind was racing. She knew she had to do something really didn't want to, but trusted it would help him reclaim what was left of his sanity.

* * *

"There you are." Dawn exclaimed in annoyance when she found Jayde sitting in the basement. "Willow told me get you for lunch. You aren't allowed to miss anymore meals."

Jayde nodded, but didn't get up from her perch on Spike's bed. "Yeah, tell her I'll eat something later, I don't feel all that good right now."

"And hiding in a damp basement is really gonna help that." Dawn huffed, coming to stand in front of her. It was easy for her to see that Jayde had been crying, judging from her red and puffy eyes, for quite some time. "Hey, you ok?"

"Yeah, just thinking some stuff through." Dawn sat next to her, waiting impatiently. "I don't want to talk about it." Jayde growled harshly.

Dawn didn't even blink, "sure you do, everyone does. Spill it girl."

Rolling her eyes at the irritating but somehow still lovable teen beside her, Jayde sighed. "Ok, but you can't say anything."

"Won't promise that, you might be planning to rob a banks or something." Dawn teased lightly.

Jayde snorted, "hardly."

Dawn jiggled her head up and down. "Ok, as long as it isn't too bad."

"I have to break up with Lucas."

She gasped, "why? I thought you loved him."

"I do… but… I heard what you guys were talking about this morning." Jayde chewed her lip as Dawn started to glare at her. "The two of us together… we make each other weak. If something like this happens again… neither of us can stand to see the other one be hurt." She paused to wipe away some fresh tears. "He wouldn't have given in to Julianna if she hadn't been threatening me. And he stayed with Warren to get us out. He's safer without me." She finally finished dissolving into sobs.

"No!" Dawn snapped, startling the crying girl. "Don't start that nobler-than-thou bullshit. I get enough of that from everyone else around here. All of them do it. When someone is going through hell, they need you to stay around, not run." Jayde stared at her in shock, tears forgotten. "I don't care if all Kertchum did was feed him cookies and make him watch bad movies in there, Lucas needs you right now."

"But… what if something like this happens again?" Dawn scoffed and crossed her arms angrily, and Jayde tried another tactic. "Ok, but you guys never heard of me, if Lucas doesn't mention me in just one year, I couldn't have been that important to him. Or I did something so horrible he doesn't want to think about me."

Dawn snorted, "are you planning to do something horrible?"

"Well… no… but..."

"And," Dawn cut her off, "the other's only spent a little while with him when Lucas was here last, he was with Xander most of the time. He could have just not told us."

"Xander didn't have any idea who I was." Jayde pointed out quickly.

"Xander gets hit on the head a lot." Dawn shot back before a smile curled on her lips. "Like, a lot a lot." Jayde started to laugh, and Dawn continued. "And do you really believe he would have not told us about this last time? 'Oh by the way, I did some time travel a year ago and met you all before.' That would have been helpful."

"So what are you saying?"

Dawn shrugged, "watch some old movies, changing the future doesn't always mean the universe is going to explode." She paused thoughtfully, "and if all of them remember Lucas coming before, somehow this was how it was suppose to be." Jayde looked at her blankly. "They all remember him, and most of what he told them still happened, right?"

She nodded, "but not all of it."

"So... maybe what changed is just because you three hadn't been here at your age now to change it." She explained brightly.

"You lost me there," Jayde raised an eyebrow.

Dawn sighed, "I think I lost myself too. I don't know how to explain it, but it just feels right." She patted Jayde's arm reassuringly. "It's work out. Lucas will be ok, you'll be happy together." She pushed on Jayde's shoulder with her own. "Just think about it before you do anything, ok?"

"Yeah, thanks."

She watched as Dawn stood and started walking up the stairs. "I'll give you a few minutes and then I'll tell Xander you're moping, he'll probably have you help him make balloon animals or something."

Jayde nodded, smiling now. "You're pretty good at this for a kid."

Dawn wrinkled her nose, "I'm gonna ignore the kid part of that, but thanks. I… I think I just tell people what I needed to hear."

* * *

"So what are we going to do? We can't send him back like this, and they can't stay forever." Dawn whispered, late that night.

Willow looked through the door of the dining room to watch Lucas sitting on the couch. Everyone else was gathered there, but he sat apart, staring blankly at the tv, ignoring the laughter around him at the cheesy sitcom. Dawn had told her about the two conversations she had with their visitors as soon as they had a moment alone, and now they were mulling out an answer. Willow sighed, "what I knew I had to do since I found out Xander went back to the wrong time."

"Which is?"

"I have to talk to Tim first, I think I need to leave it up to him." Willow poked her head into the living room and waved to Tim, he quietly left the younger people to their show and joined her.

"What's wrong?"

Willow paused, "I have a way to help Lucas, but I need your permission. And you need to know exactly what it means for you and him."

He crossed his arms over his chest, "I really don't care what it means for me as long as I don't have to sacrifice a cow and drink it's blood."

"That's not something we joke about in Sunnydale." Xander said from behind him. "Whatever you're all doing, you are way too obvious. Let's take this somewhere else." He nodded to Lucas, who was now curiously watching them.

"Yeah, Xander stay here, I have to talk to Tim alone." Willow ordered, "call me if something happens."

He scowled at being left behind, but saw the seriousness of her expression and walked back to the living room. Dawn joined him, and they began laughing too loudly at the show to dispel any worry.

Tim followed Willow out the back door of the house, they circled around and started walking down the side of the quiet street. "Is it safe out here?"

"Should be, we have a bodyguard." Willow nodded her head to the lurking individual in the shadows across the road. "I think he's still a little afraid of you."

Tim heard a muffled snort and distinctive British cursing as the person faded back into the dark. "Are you guys going to just let him go on living after what he did?"

"Yeah," she sighed, "kind of the devil we do know versus the one we don't. And he did save Lucas in the end."

They walked in silence for a few more minutes before Tim came to a stop. "I think we're far enough away."

Willow nodded, "sorry, lost in thought."

"So what can you do?"

She took a deep breath, "I can make Lucas forget all of this." She waved vaguely to the area around her. "Everything that happened since Xander showed up on the ship."

Tim stared at her. "How?"

"There's this spell, to make people forget bad things that happened. And since I can send you back to just before Xander got there, and take him out of that timeline, no one on the ship will know either."

"Ok, so what's the problem?"

Willow looked away, "you."

"What did I do?" Tim asked in bafflement.

She shook her head. "No, it's not like that. When I first found out that you guys were from the wrong time, I knew I'd have to do something like this. But, now I know how it feels to have that electrical shock go through me…" She trailed off, looking pensive. "You won't remember any of this either, and I don't want you to go through that."

"Oh…" Tim blinked, and swallowed. "And from what you said happens to Xander and Lucas with Stark…"

"Yeah, I kind of feel like I'm just leaving you both to a horrible fate." Willow gazed at him. "I think I just need you to tell me it's ok. I mean, after this happening, I want Lucas to forget all it and be himself again. So it's between knowing I'm condemning the both of you to being tortured and leaving him like this."

He sighed, and had to sit on the curb as he thought. "And he won't remember? He won't have flash backs or anything?"

"No, nothing. You can all stay here for a while, so everyone is healed up and healthy, but then you'll forget everything." She sat next to him. "What do you think?"

"Yes, of course. I don't want Lucas to go through the crap with Stark, but he was ok afterwards, right? Or at least better than he is now?" Willow nodded, and Tim let out a breath. "Then yeah, do it. I'll survive whatever I have coming."

"Thank you, Tim, that makes it a lot easier."


	40. Chapter 40

"That is it!" Willow raged, chasing the giggling people from the kitchen. The dishwasher was currently spewing out red foam and she growled a simple spell to direct it into the sink. "I know they're just blowing off steam, but this getting crazy."

Tim nodded his agreement, while trying to hide the roll of mentos he planned to toss into Xander's glass of coke. "I... I'll talk to them."

Willow groaned, "it won't help, it's my people more than your's. At this point everyone is just getting back at everyone else." She sighed, and tossed a red soaked towel in with the foam. "And it's good for Lucas."

In the week since he had left the hospital, the teen had shown some small improvements, mixed evenly with troubling signs. He was eating better and sleeping, but only when told to. He even joined in on several of the pranks when asked. He was still withdrawn and mostly quiet, pulling away when anyone questioned him. Everyone still saw the nervousness in him and how he would flinch from loud noises. Their trip to Warren's lab was particularly trying. Lucas held it together long enough to reverse what the man had done and dismantle the computer. But only with everyone else standing guard around him and hyperventilating to the point that Tim ordered him out of the building a few times. However, he laughed more, and seemed to be enjoying his time within the household.

This was part of the problem, Xander and Anya were staying there as long as the crew was, and the crowded conditions were causing tempers to rise. The pranks started quickly, and as long as no one was hurt, Willow let it happen. She warned them when Tara screamed bloody murder after finding a fake spider left for Dawn, tucked in the bristles of a hairbrush, but it only made them make sure she didn't know was doing what.

"Your hair is still a little blue." She pointed out to Tim as he attempted to sneak out.

"I know, Jayde said it take a few more washings."

Willow narrowed her eyes, "take that outside when you do it, and it works better with a bottle."

Tim flushed, and scurried from the room stammering, "yes, sir... I mean ma'am... I mean... Willow."

* * *

Dawn carefully checked her blankets for rubber rats, spiders, sand, and cooked noddles before she started to climb in. She found a search done on her computer earlier and was wary of everything at the moment. Hearing muted voices coming from her open window, she stopped and silently watched.

Spike was standing in front of Lucas, his long coat swaying in the mild breeze. Far from looking intemidated, Lucas grinned up at the vampire. "Looking for a late night snack?"

He chuckled and sat next to him, "all snacks are late night for me."

"Good point."

Spike looked down at the wide circle of bare earth around the teen, and the blades of grass in his hand. "Come here often?"

Lucas nodded, "yeah, I can only sleep a few hours a night. I stay out here so I don't wake anyone up." He shrugged, "I can think out here, and I like how open it feels. The house can get a little claustrophobic sometimes."

"And the reason you're massacring the lawn?"

"Oh, just keeping occupied I guess."

Spike stayed quiet for a few minutes, the grass ripping up from the ground the only sound around them. "So... how are you doing?"

Lucas groaned, "I really wish people would stop asking me that."

"That isn't an answer."

"I know." He sighed, "I'll be ok, I guess. Everyone just keeps saying it'll take some time."

"You were pretty messed up in there." Spike pointed out bluntly.

Lucas let out a breath, "yeah, I was," he whispered. "I don't think I thanked you yet for slugging me. That must have hurt."

Spike scoffed, looking away suddenly. "A friend in need and all that."

"A friend? Really?" Lucas asked in surprise. "I thought you did all that because Willow ordered you to."

"Well, yeah, that's part of it. But," he hesitated, looking embarrassed. "You seem like a good kid." He said gruffly, standing. "Just do me a favor stay out of trouble, will ya?"

Lucas watched him walk away, "I try, it just always finds me."

* * *

A quiet discussion caught Xander's attention a few days later, and he snuck up behind Willow and Tim. "We have to send you back, he's getting worse."

Tim nodded gravely, "are you sure he wasn't still dreaming? That's just so unlike him."

She shrugged, "could be, but still."

"What happened?" Xander asked, letting his presence be known.

Willow spun around to face him, after checking to make sure no one else was around, she sighed. "Jayde said he had a nightmare this morning. After she woke him up, he took a swing at her."

"No, he wouldn't do that. He's been getting better." Xander vehemently defended his friend.

"Xander," Willow started carefully, "he isn't, he's just getting better at hiding it. I can still feel what he's feeling. Look at him, he isn't sleeping, he barely eating, and he just isn't himself."

"What can the SeaQuest crew do that we can't?" Xander snapped back.

Willow paused, trying to decide what to tell him, but Tim spoke up for her. "We'll take care of him."

"Fine," Xander sighed, "when?"

"I've had the spell ready for a couple of days now, in case we had to do it quickly. We can have a going away party tonight and do it tomorrow."

"Can I tell him? Or is it going to be a surprise?" He snarled, "thanks for visiting, sorry you got tortured, time to leave?"

"Xander!" Tim gaped at him, "we are trying to help him!"

"Yeah, to bad helping him means sending him away." Xander stormed from the room muttering.

Willow rubbed her face, "don't worry, he was like this last time. They have some weird connection. Or they did before..."

* * *

That night, a subdued party occurred. Lucas presented the Scoobys with the repaired Buffy-bot, which he had been secretly working on during the night. Spike joined them with a few of his demon friends, causing a brief panic when Tim nearly destroyed them upon them entering the home. When it was assured no one was trying to kill each other, it became a party game. The demons thought the unassuming looking officer hiding a powerful secret was more amazing than any slayer. They would charge him, and he blasted them backwards with a controlled jolt of power. Luckily, only a few pieces of furniture were damaged. Considering the circumstances, it was good time.

The next morning, everyone got ready, wearing the same clothes they arrived in. Only Tim and Willow knew taking anything from Sunnydale would cause problems and convinced the rest it had to do with transmitting strange bacteria onto the ship. They gathered in the living room, saying their goodbyes. Xander couldn't help but see the difference in the last time him and Lucas parted. The teen barely looked at anyone, only nodding when spoken too. "Um, give me a call when you get back. I shouldn't be hard to find."

"Yeah, of course." Lucas muttered, letting the older man take him in a tight hug.

Tim and Willow locked eyes at the comment,_ I'll check on you, if this doesn't work, we'll have to try something else. _Tim nodded and looked away before anyone could catch them communicating.

Working with Tara, Willow quickly prepared the spell, and soon the house was filled with the sound of roaring wind. The spectators watched in awe mixed equally with nervousness. "Ok," Willow called above the noise. "Once you step through, you might... um feel a little light headed, it'll pass quickly." The small crew of the SeaQuest waved one last time and stepped through the swirling white portal, vanishing from sight.

* * *

Directly after landing in Lucas' cabin, thankfully on their feet, the three of them looked around. "Finally home." Jayde said in relief.

"Yeah, great," Lucas mumbled quietly, slumping on his bed. "Now we get to explain to everyone what happened."

"I wouldn't worry about it." Tim smiled at him, and then glanced around the room as of he was waiting for something.

Lucas jerked his head up. "What do you mean?"

"It was the only way to help you, we would have asked but..." He was cut off by the now familiar sound of rushing wind. A much smaller portal than the one they had just come through opened.

Jayde threw herself in front of Lucas as he recoiled in fear. "What did you do?!" She hissed at the serene looking Tim.

"What we had to." Tim patiently informed the terrified teens before they all collapsed into unconsciousness.


	41. Chapter 41

**Epilogue**

Xander wandered through the house feeling depressed and frustrated. He didn't want to wait fifteen years to make sure Lucas was alright. He wanted know now that the teen was back to his smart assed and mischievous self. He slowed as he passed the stairs, considering asking Willow to open a portal so he could visit. Surely Lucas wouldn't mind if he went a month or so after they were sent back. He had to be better by then. Xander could almost hear the sound of the magics working as he climbed the stairs, outside of Willow's door, he realized he could actually hear it.

Bursting through the door, he smelt the burning herbs and saw her close the white portal. "What are you doing? Did you check on them?"

She sighed, "he'll be fine, Xander, I just made sure of it. And I had to stop you from showing up there."

"What did you do?" He asked suspiciously.

"Tabula Rasa," she murmured, waiting for a bad reaction.

"Bless you, now what did you do?"

Willow stood, and dusted the ash from her hands. "I made them all forget what happened here. They'll wake up on the ship and none of this happened to them... to Lucas." Xander stared at her slack jawed. "It was the only way to save his mind."

"But they won't know about Stark, or Mariah." Xander started to seethe. "You're setting them up to be horribly tortured when we could have done something to stop it."

"Tim approved it," she whispered. "Lucas was fine after Stark, he wasn't after this. I had to. I'm sorry, Xander."

"And what about his leg? Did you think about that? He's gonna notice when he was a nice new scar." Xander spat, trying to find a hole in her argument purely out of spite.

Willow sighed, and tried to keep her own anger in check. "You mean when he got hurt because he fought back during the take over? I took care of it."

He stepped closer to her, snarling in her face. "You can't fix everything with magic, Willow, things go wrong, just remember that." Xander spun away and stormed from the room.

* * *

Warren cringed at the sound of footsteps coming down the walkway outside of his cell. He had been imprisoned for a month, and in that time had endured nearly daily beating from his cellmate. The large man was now with a visitor, and Warren had a small window of time to enjoy the solitude. He knew he would be back soon. In high school and even collage, Warren had never dealt anything like this. He was large enough to avoid most fights, and even defended his smaller friends when necessary. Here, he was fresh meat, and he knew it. He curled in a ball on the cot, hoping that if he pretended to be sleeping, he would be left alone.

The door slid open, squeaking on it's wheels, and a throat was cleared. "Mr. Meers, come with me." Warren jerked with surprise and stood, staring at the somber looking prison guard. The man motioned for him to leave the cell, and Warren complied in utter confusion.

"Am I being moved? I should get my stuff." Warren pointed to the meager possessions he was allowed.

"In a manner of speaking." The guard informed him, steering him along. "Your things will be sent."

Warren kept quiet until he was brought to the entrance of the jail. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Dr. Kertchum sitting here. "What is this? My lawyer told me you had been arrested."

Dr. Kertchum nodded his thanks to the guard and escorted Warren out of the door. "You'd be amazed what having powerful friends can do you for you, son."

"So... we're free?" Warren asked in shock.

"Yes, and I hope you'll continue to work for me as payment for your freedom."

He nodded enthusiastically, "yes, of course, what do you want me to do?"

"Our young friend fixed your designs for the neural interface, would you like to see it come to fruition?" Warren looked at him with a maniacal smile. "And what do you know about this ship they're on in the future?"

* * *

Lucas opened his eyes to see the very familiar setting of the med-bay. He tried to sit up, but was pushed down almost immediately. Dr. Westphalen's irritated face was inches from his own. "You three sneak out, and what, decided to have some kind of raging party until you all pass out?" She demanded, her eyes blazing.

"Uh... I have no idea." He shrunk away from the irate doctor, trying not to laugh. Lucas knew enough that it wouldn't help matters if he did.

"Two weeks." She informed him severely.

"What?"

"You are going to spend the next two weeks here, if I have to tie you to the bed, I will." Kristin clucked her tongue. "You look like you haven't slept in almost that long, so it seems fitting.

Lucas groaned, "oh... this is going to suck." He glanced over to Jayde laying in her own bed, who was grinning conspiratorially at him. He raised an eyebrow, and she only shrugged in reply. Feeling the weariness deep in his bones, Lucas burrowed his head in the pillow. "Ok, maybe I'll stay a little while." He drifted off, a grin displayed on his face.

The End

* * *

**Author's Note: I had no intention of making this so long, or dark, it just sort of happened that way. Anyhow, I hope you liked it. I'll be taking a break for the rest of the summer, although I have plans for two short stories. The first one will tie in this one, and the other is a stand alone. Drop me a note to tell me how you felt about this one. I'm curious if I made the timelines make sense to anyone other than myself. Thanks for reading!**


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